Fig. 4: Transcriptional specificity of thoracic and abdominal vSMCs.
From: Region-specific gene expression and sex inform about disease susceptibility in the aorta
a, Schematic of experimental design. b, UMAP of vSMCs highlighting the distribution of thoracic-derived cells. c, Visualization of the top five gene ontology categories from the top 50 unique thoracic vSMC-expressed genes calculated via hypergeometric distribution. P values for enrichment categories are as follows: embryonic organ morphogenesis, 3.64 × 10−11; response to dexamethasone, 7.23 × 10−7; DNA damage response, 4.63 × 10−6; response to amphetamine, 1.58 × 10−5; hematopoiesis, 8.09 × 10−5. d, Violin plot visualizing the expression pattern of Ccdc42. e, Representative IF images of CCDC42 expression (green) per site. f, Quantification of CCDC42 expression. Carotid, n = 7 images, 3 animals; arch, n = 12 images, 6 animals; thoracic, n = 24 images, 4 animals; abdominal, n = 27 images, 5 animals; 73 images in total. Brown–Forsythe and Welch’s ANOVA, P values: P = 0.0025, thoracic versus carotid; P < 0.0001, thoracic versus arch; P < 0.0001, thoracic versus abdominal. g, Violin plot of Dapk2 transcript expression. h, Representative IF images of DAPK2 expression (green) in the four anatomic sites. i, Quantification of DAPK2 expression in the four anatomic sites. Carotid, n = 18 images, 5 animals; arch, n = 12 images, 6 animals; thoracic, n = 26 images, 5 animals; abdominal, n = 28 images, 5 animals; 82 images in total. Kruskal–Wallis test, P values: P < 0.0001, thoracic versus carotid; P < 0.0001, thoracic versus arch; P < 0.0001, thoracic versus abdominal. j, Schematic of experimental design highlighting the abdominal-derived vSMC population. k, UMAP of abdominal-derived vSMCs within the total cluster of vSMCs. l, Visualization of the top five gene ontology categories from the top 50 unique abdominal vSMC-expressed genes calculated via hypergeometric distribution. P values for enrichment categories are as follows: skeletal system development, 6.09 × 10−10; urogenital system development, 9.53 × 10−8; response to hormone, 4.21 × 10−7; NABA core matrisome, 6.17 × 10−6; response to steroid hormone, 1.05 × 10−4. m, Violin plot of Pgr transcript expression. n, Representative IF images of PGR expression (green) in the four anatomic sites. o, Quantification of PGR expression in the four anatomic sites. Carotid, n = 22 images, 4 animals; arch, n = 30 images, 8 animals; thoracic, n = 46 images, 5 animals; abdominal, n = 36 images, 5 animals; 134 images in total. Kruskal–Wallis test, P values: P < 0.0001, abdominal versus carotid; P < 0.0001, abdominal versus arch; P < 0.0001, abdominal versus thoracic. p, Violin plot of Bche transcript expression. q, Representative IF images of BCHE expression (green) in the four anatomic sites. r, Quantification of BCHE expression in the four anatomic sites. Carotid, n = 25 images, 5 animals; arch, n = 26 images, 6 animals; thoracic, n = 42 images, 5 animals; abdominal, n = 34 images, 5 animals; 127 images in total. Kruskal–Wallis test, P values: P < 0.0001, abdominal versus carotid; P = 0.0001, abdominal versus arch; P = 0.0247, abdominal versus thoracic. For c,l, color indicates the degree of enrichment (log) of expression, while circle size indicates the P value (−log10). For e,h,n,q, the boxed red arrow indicates the anatomic site of interest. For f,i,o,r, error bars represent mean ± s.d. Two-sided Brown–Forsythe and Welch’s ANOVA (Ccdc42) and two-sided Kruskal–Wallis test (Dapk2, Pgr and Bche) with multiple-testing comparison. Panels a and j created using BioRender.com.
