Fig. 1: Spatial heterogeneity of transcriptomes in BMECs.
From: Spatial heterogeneity of bone marrow endothelial cells unveils a distinct subtype in the epiphysis
a, Schematic diagram depicting the strategy for scRNA-seq of BMECs. b–d, Feature plots of BMECs of three bone fragments and clustering based on the expression of canonical endothelial subtype markers. Dia, diaphysis; Epi, epiphysis; Meta, metaphysis. b, Feature plot showing all cells derived from three datasets (epiphysis, metaphysis and diaphysis). c, Feature plot showing all cells derived from three datasets (epiphysis, metaphysis and diaphysis) with annotation for each cluster. d, Feature plots showing expression of marker genes with enriched expression for each endothelial cluster. The arrowheads in d indicate clusters represented by each marker. e, Violin plots showing the expression of pan-endothelial and type H markers. f, Violin plots showing the expression of genes enriched in type S ECs. g, Feature plots of BMECs. Col1a1 and Col1a2 genes are highly expressed in type S ECs (arrowheads), although their expression is highest in OBs/MSCs (arrows). h, A heatmap showing expression of various collagen genes. i, Flow cytometric analysis of isolated CD31+CD45− BM cells at P11 (Ly6ahighLy6chigh surface protein levels) (n = 4, biologically independent experiments). The P value for the epiphysis versus the metaphysis is 0.000012. j, Immunohistochemistry of femur sections at P11. Ly6a is abundantly expressed in type S ECs (closed arrowheads) and AECs (asterisks), but weakly in type H ECs (open arrowheads). In the box plots of e and f the lower and upper bounds of box represent the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively; the box represents the middle 50% of the data, namely the interquartile range (IQR); the horizontal line within the box represents the median; and the lower and upper bounds of the whiskers represent the minimum and maximum values within 1.5× the IQR below the 25th percentile and above the 75th percentile, respectively. The black dots represent outliers. Scale bar, 200 µm. Data presented are the mean ± s.d. The comparisons between the averages of two groups were evaluated using the two-tailed Student’s t-test.
