Chavkin Nicholas W, Hirschi Karen K
Department of Cell Biology, Developmental Genomics Center, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States.
Departments of Medicine and Genetics, Cardiovascular Research Center, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States.
Front Cardiovasc Med. 2020 Mar 31;7:42. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2020.00042. eCollection 2020.
The ability to quantify DNA, RNA, and protein variations at the single cell level has revolutionized our understanding of cellular heterogeneity within tissues. Via such analyses, individual cells within populations previously thought to be homogeneous can now be delineated into specific subpopulations expressing unique sets of genes, enabling specialized functions. In vascular biology, studies using single cell RNA sequencing have revealed extensive heterogeneity among endothelial and mural cells even within the same vessel, key intermediate cell types that arise during blood and lymphatic vessel development, and cell-type specific responses to disease. Thus, emerging new single cell analysis techniques are enabling vascular biologists to elucidate mechanisms of vascular development, homeostasis, and disease that were previously not possible. In this review, we will provide an overview of single cell analysis methods and highlight recent advances in vascular biology made possible through single cell RNA sequencing.
在单细胞水平上对DNA、RNA和蛋白质变异进行定量分析的能力，彻底改变了我们对组织内细胞异质性的理解。通过此类分析，以前被认为是同质的群体中的单个细胞现在可以被划分为表达独特基因集的特定亚群，从而实现特定功能。在血管生物学中，使用单细胞RNA测序的研究揭示了即使在同一血管内，内皮细胞和平滑肌细胞之间也存在广泛的异质性，血液和淋巴管发育过程中出现的关键中间细胞类型，以及细胞类型对疾病的特异性反应。因此，新兴的单细胞分析技术使血管生物学家能够阐明以前无法实现的血管发育、稳态和疾病机制。在这篇综述中，我们将概述单细胞分析方法，并重点介绍通过单细胞RNA测序在血管生物学方面取得的最新进展。
