Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 24, 2026
Isolation and Profiling of Human Primary Mesenteric Arterial Endothelial Cells at the Transcriptome Level
Published on: March 14, 2022
Endovascular biopsy: Strategy for analyzing gene expression profiles of individual endothelial cells obtained from
Zhengda Sun1, Devon A Lawson2, Elizabeth Sinclair3
1Division of Neurointerventional Radiology, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Insights
Researchers developed a novel endovascular method to collect endothelial cells (ECs) for gene expression analysis. This technique identified distinct EC subpopulations, including those resembling senescent cells, in vascular lesions.
Area of Science:
- Vascular Biology
- Molecular Medicine
- Genomics
Background:
- Endothelial cells (ECs) play a critical role in vascular health and disease.
- Understanding EC gene expression is crucial for diagnosing and treating vascular conditions.
- Current methods for EC collection and analysis can be invasive or yield limited cellular material.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish an endovascular strategy for targeted endothelial cell collection.
- To analyze the gene expression profiles of single endothelial cells obtained via endovascular methods.
Main Methods:
- Endovascular guide wires were used to collect cells from the intra-iliac artery of patients.
- Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) isolated endothelial cells (ECs) from leukocytes.
- Single-cell quantitative RT-PCR analyzed the expression of 48 genes in collected ECs.
Main Results:
- 134 ECs and 37 leukocytes were successfully collected and analyzed.
- Isolated ECs showed higher expression of EC-specific markers compared to leukocytes.
- Gene expression analysis revealed two distinct EC clusters (A and B), with cluster B exhibiting characteristics of senescent cells.
Conclusions:
- The combination of endovascular sampling, FACS, and single-cell RT-PCR is a viable approach for EC gene expression profiling.
- This method allows for the characterization of EC heterogeneity in vascular lesions.
- The findings suggest the presence of distinct EC subpopulations, including senescent cells, in pathological vascular environments.
Purpose:
To develop a strategy of achieving targeted collection of endothelial cells (ECs) by endovascular methods and analyzing the gene expression profiles of collected single ECs.
Methods And Results:
134 ECs and 37 leukocytes were collected from four patients' intra-iliac artery endovascular guide wires by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) and analyzed by single-cell quantitative RT-PCR for expression profile of 48 genes. Compared to CD45+ leukocytes, the ECs expressed higher levels (p < 0.05) of EC surface markers used on FACS and other EC related genes. The gene expression profile showed that these isolated ECs fell into two clusters, A and B, that differentially expressed 19 genes related to angiogenesis, inflammation and extracellular matrix remodeling, with cluster B ECs have demonstrating similarities to senescent or aging ECs.
Conclusion:
Combination of endovascular device sampling, FACS and single-cell quantitative RT-PCR is a feasible method for analyzing EC gene expression profile in vascular lesions.
More Related Videos
08:50Gene Expression Analysis of Endothelial Cells Exposed to Shear Stress Using Multiple Parallel-plate Flow Chambers
Published on: October 21, 2018
09:12Isolation of Endothelial Cells from the Lumen of Mouse Carotid Arteries for Single-Cell Multi-Omics Experiments
Published on: October 4, 2021