Endothelial cell plasticity at the single-cell level

Abstract

The vascular endothelium is characterized by a remarkable level of plasticity, which is the driving force not only of physiological repair/remodeling of adult tissues but also of pathological angiogenesis. The resulting heterogeneity of endothelial cells (ECs) makes targeting the endothelium challenging, no less because many EC phenotypes are yet to be identified and functionally inventorized. Efforts to map the vasculature at the single-cell level have been instrumental to capture the diversity of EC types and states at a remarkable depth in both normal and pathological states. Here, we discuss new EC subtypes and functions emerging from recent single-cell studies in health and disease. Interestingly, such studies revealed distinct metabolic gene signatures in different EC phenotypes, which deserve further consideration for therapy. We highlight how this metabolic targeting strategy could potentially be used to promote (for tissue repair) or block (in tumor) angiogenesis in a tissue or even vascular bed-specific manner.

Deciphering the heterogeneous niche in the tumor progression of hepatocellular carcinoma: a Spatial single-cell landscape and multi-omics atlas analysis

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Classical and Non-classical Fibrosis Phenotypes Are Revealed by Lung and Cardiac Like Microvascular Tissues On-Chip

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Epigenetic Regulation of Endothelial Cell Lineages During Zebrafish Development—New Insights From Technical Advances

“…The identification of gene expression heterogeneity in endothelial cells from single cell transcriptomics studies in mouse ( Kalucka et al, 2020 ; Pasut et al, 2021 ) suggests the possibility that big cell populations such as AECs, VECs and LECs hide a yet uncovered heterogeneity of subpopulations, each characterized by different expression and epigenetic profiles mirroring their different environmental requirements and functions. Single cell ATAC-seq (scATAC-seq) allows us to investigate this heterogeneity, and dissect the minute complexity of gene expression regulation on a single cell level.…”