Fig. 5: Delineation of mural cell heterogeneity and maturation in iMPCs via scRNA-seq.

A Differentiation and Co-Culture Timeline: Schematic illustrating the progression from iPSCs through various stages to iMPCs and their subsequent co-culture with ECs, with an emphasis on the transition points sampled for scRNA-seq. c-SMCs and s-SMCs refer to contractile and synthetic SMCs, respectively. B Cellular Clustering: UMAP projection displaying identified clusters annotated into nine cell types, including iPSCs, MePCs, iMPCs, and various mural cells, based on gene expression markers. C Differentiation Trajectory: UMAP visualization tracking the differentiation from iPSCs to iMPCs and the emergence of mural cell clusters. D Marker Gene Expression: Dot plot summarizing the expression profiles of key markers across clusters, delineating cell identity. E Gene Expression Dynamics: Volcano plots displaying the up- and down-regulated genes in iMPCs after EC co-culture, with emphasis on genes related to contractility and ECM components. F Pseudotime Analysis: UMAP overlaid with pseudotime scores, indicating the developmental progression of cells. G Pseudotime Analysis: Differentiation trajectory from iMPCs to pericytes and SMCs, with annotations indicating distinct cell identities. H Schematic Summary: Illustration summarizing the differentiation of iMPCs into specialized mural cells, highlighting the impact of EC interaction on iMPC maturation and the establishment of mural cell heterogeneity. A, H were partially created with BioRender.com released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en).