Decoding the role of vascular smooth muscle cell heterogeneity in cardiovascular disease by single cell genomics

心血管疾病是世界范围内导致死亡的主要原因。血管平滑肌细胞（VSMC）参与多种血管疾病的发病机制，如动脉瘤、动脉粥样硬化、血管钙化和先天性血管疾病。不同血管中的VSMCs是异质的，在健康和患病状态下表现不同，并且来自不同的胚胎祖细胞。本项目将利用最新技术（单细胞RNA-seq，单细胞ATAC-seq，空间转录组学）来解析发育中的人类胚胎中的VSMC亚群，追踪其谱系历史并揭示其分化的调控程序。VSMC亚群中疾病相关转录和染色质特征的发现和表征将有助于阐明人类心血管病理的基础，为心血管疾病提供诊断解决方案，并促进用于再生目的的人体组织的逆向工程。

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) are implicated in the pathogenesis of several types of vascular diseases, such as aneurysm, atherosclerosis, vascular calcification and congenital vascular disease. VSMCs in different blood vessels are heterogeneous, behave differently in healthy and diseased states and derive from different embryonic progenitors. This project will use the latest technologies (single cell RNA-seq, single cell ATAC-seq, spatial transcriptomics) to resolve VSMC subpopulations in the developing human embryo, trace their lineage history and uncover the regulatory programs responsible for their differentiation. The discovery and characterization of disease-relevant transcriptional and chromatin signatures in VSMC subpopulations will help clarifying the basis of human cardiovascular pathology, enable diagnostic solutions for cardiovascular disease and facilitate reverse engineering of human tissues for regenerative purposes.