Fig. 1.

Profiling of different aortic segments using scRNA-seq. a Experimental procedure for five consecutive aortic segments. Full-length aortas were separated from five C57BL/6 male mice at 12 weeks and dissected into five segments based on the anatomical landmarks. Different aortic segments were digested with the same dissociation program to obtain single-cell suspensions for sequencing with 10X Genomics. b Elastin staining of five segments showed the complete structure of the aorta with decreased diameter. c The heatmap showed top marker genes to identify all aortic cells into eight types. The order of marker genes was in accordance with the order of cell types. d A dot plot indicated the relative expression of marker genes in the distinct cell population. The dot size reflects the percentage of cells expressing the selected gene in each population. e The distribution of all subtypes in different segments was manifested by the t-SNE plot. f The proportion of special subclusters showed significant variation among five aortic sections, especially VSMC 2, 3, and 4. EC endothelial cell, VSMC vascular smooth muscle cell, Fibro fibroblast, Macro macrophage, Mono monocyte