Fig. 1: The cellular composition and properties of human arterioles exhibit distinct features compared with the aorta.

A UMAP plot showing major cell types identified in arteriole (this study) and thoracic aorta (Pirruccello, J.P. et al., 2022) snRNA-seq data. B Dot plot displaying expression of conventional marker gene across cell types. Dot size represents the percentage of cells expressing each gene, and color intensity indicates the average expression level. C Relative proportions of pericytes to ECs and VSMCs to ECs in arteriole and thoracic aorta, shown separately. D Heatmap showing pairwise gene expression correlations across cell types in arteriole and thoracic aorta, with color indicating Spearman correlation coefficients. E Dot plot showing significant associations between cell types and blood pressure-related traits from MAGMA cell typing analysis. Statistical significance was assessed using a gene set enrichment analysis based on the top 10% most specific genes for each cell type. P-values were adjusted using the Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) method to control the false discovery rate (FDR). Only associations with FDR < 0.05 are shown. Dot size represents the effect size (beta), and color intensity reflects the magnitude of the –log₁₀(p-value). Exact p values are in the Source Data file Cell type. EC endothelial cell, LEC lymphatic endothelial cell, VSMC vascular smooth muscle cell.