Identification of underexplored mesenchymal and vascular-related cell populations in human skeletal muscle
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ABSTRACT: Skeletal muscle repair and maintenance are directly and indirectly supported by stromal populations such as vascular cells and fibro-adiopgenic progenitors (FAPs), a subset of which express Twist2 and possess direct myogenic potential in rodents. However, less is understood of the complexity and heterogeneity of human skeletal muscle stromal cells. To this end, we performed single-cell RNA-sequencing on ~2000 cells isolated from the human semitendinosus muscle of young individuals. This demonstrated the presence of two poorly described cell populations. First, we detected a vascular-related cell type that expressed pericyte and pan-endothelial genes that we localized to large blood vessels within skeletal muscle cross-sections and termed endothelial-like pericytes (ELPCs). RNA velocity analysis demonstrated that ELPCs may represent a "transition state" between endothelial cells and pericytes. Analysis of published single-cell RNA-seq datasets revealed evidence for ELPCs in trunk and heart musculature, which showed transcriptional similarity. Additionally, we identified a subset of FAPs expressing TWIST2 mRNA and protein. Human TWIST2-expressing cells were anatomically and transcriptionally comparable to mouse Twist2 cells as they were restricted to the myofiber interstitium, expressed fibrogenic genes but lacked satellite cell markers and colocalized with the FAPs marker PDGFRα in human muscle cross-sections. Taken together, these results highlight the complexity of stromal cells residing in human skeletal muscle and support the utility of single-cell RNA-sequencing for discovery and characterization of poorly described cell populations.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE216544 | GEO | 2022/11/01
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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