Fig. 4: Spatially differential activations of autophagy in the basement and leading positions of elongating sprouts. | Nature Communications

Fig. 4: Spatially differential activations of autophagy in the basement and leading positions of elongating sprouts.

From: Angiogenesis-on-a-chip coupled with single-cell RNA sequencing reveals spatially differential activations of autophagy along angiogenic sprouts

Fig. 4: Spatially differential activations of autophagy in the basement and leading positions of elongating sprouts.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

A UMAP plots showing the trajectory (up) and corresponding relative positions (down) along elongating sprouts. Linear trajectory is obtained from ECs in C0-8. Cells are colored by their clusters (see the color legend in the right). B Four sets of genes (P1-4) showing activation in basement (P1), middle (P2), and leading positions (P3-4) along the trajectory. The mean expression (Z-score) of genes in each set is displayed in individual ECs along the trajectory. Colored bars on the top denote cluster memberships of the individual ECs. Relative position along the trajectory increases along the elongating sprouts axis (arrow). C Cellular pathways enriched by the genes in P1-4 for the trajectory. Enrichment significance (enrichment P-value from hypergeometric test implemented at ConsensusPathDB) for cellular pathways is displayed as –log10(P). Color bar, the gradient of –log10(P). D Relative expression profiles of the indicated representative genes (see the gene legend in the right) involved in the indicated pathways related to cell proliferation, angiogenesis, autophagy, and tip cell migration along the trajectory. E Representative z-projected images of 3D angiogenic sprouts generated from ECs transfected with LC3B-mCherry-GFP at day 2. The overall distribution of LC3B puncta within a sample is shown in above (Scale bar, 200 μm). The subregions in the leading (magenta box) and basement (green box) positions of elongating sprouts are magnified in below (Scale bar, 50 μm). Red and yellow, mCherry+ and mCherry+GFP + LC3B puncta, respectively. F The ratio (right) of mCherry+ to GFP + LC3B signal in the basement and leading positions of elongating sprouts in eight samples (Biological replicates). *p < 0.05, unpaired two-sided t-test. Data are mean ± S.D. Source data and exact P-values are provided in a Source Data file.

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