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A single-cell atlas of the normal and malformed human brain vasculature
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A single-cell atlas of the normal and malformed human brain vasculature

Ethan A Winkler, Chang N Kim, Jayden M Ross, Joseph H Garcia, Eugene Gil, Irene Oh, Lindsay Q Chen, David Wu, Joshua S Catapano, Kunal Raygor, …
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), Vol.375(6584), pp.eabi7377-eabi7377
03/04/2022
PMID: 35084939

Abstract

Adult Blood Vessels - cytology Blood Vessels - pathology Blood Vessels - physiology Blood Vessels - physiopathology Brain - blood supply Cells, Cultured Cerebral Cortex - blood supply Cerebral Hemorrhage - pathology Cerebral Hemorrhage - physiopathology Cerebrovascular Circulation Endothelial Cells - cytology Endothelial Cells - pathology Endothelial Cells - physiology Fibroblasts - cytology Fibroblasts - physiology Humans Inflammation Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations - metabolism Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations - pathology Monocytes - cytology Monocytes - physiology Muscle, Smooth, Vascular - cytology Muscle, Smooth, Vascular - pathology Muscle, Smooth, Vascular - physiology Pericytes - cytology Pericytes - physiology RNA-Seq Single-Cell Analysis Transcriptome
Cerebrovascular diseases are a leading cause of death and neurologic disability. Further understanding of disease mechanisms and therapeutic strategies requires a deeper knowledge of cerebrovascular cells in humans. We profiled transcriptomes of 181,388 cells to define a cell atlas of the adult human cerebrovasculature, including endothelial cell molecular signatures with arteriovenous segmentation and expanded perivascular cell diversity. By leveraging this reference, we investigated cellular and molecular perturbations in brain arteriovenous malformations, which are a leading cause of stroke in young people, and identified pathologic endothelial transformations with abnormal vascular patterning and the ontology of vascularly derived inflammation. We illustrate the interplay between vascular and immune cells that contributes to brain hemorrhage and catalog opportunities for targeting angiogenic and inflammatory programs in vascular malformations.

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