Single-cell profiling reveals heterogeneity and functional patterning of GPCR expression in the vascular system

H. Kaur, J. Carvalho, M. Looso, P. Singh, R. Chennupati, J. Preussner, S. Günther, J. Albarrán-Juárez, D. Tischner, S. Classen, S. Offermanns and N. Wettschureck ()
Additional contact information
H. Kaur: Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
J. Carvalho: Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
M. Looso: ECCPS Bioinformatics Facility, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
P. Singh: Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
R. Chennupati: Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
J. Preussner: ECCPS Bioinformatics Facility, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
S. Günther: ECCPS Deep sequencing platform, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
J. Albarrán-Juárez: Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
D. Tischner: Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
S. Classen: Harvey Vascular Centre, Kerckhoff-Klinik
S. Offermanns: Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
N. Wettschureck: Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) expression is extensively studied in bulk cDNA, but heterogeneity and functional patterning of GPCR expression in individual vascular cells is poorly understood. Here, we perform a microfluidic-based single-cell GPCR expression analysis in primary smooth muscle cells (SMC) and endothelial cells (EC). GPCR expression is highly heterogeneous in all cell types, which is confirmed in reporter mice, on the protein level and in human cells. Inflammatory activation in murine models of sepsis or atherosclerosis results in characteristic changes in the GPCR repertoire, and we identify functionally relevant subgroups of cells that are characterized by specific GPCR patterns. We further show that dedifferentiating SMC upregulate GPCRs such as Gpr39, Gprc5b, Gprc5c or Gpr124, and that selective targeting of Gprc5b modulates their differentiation state. Taken together, single-cell profiling identifies receptors expressed on pathologically relevant subpopulations and provides a basis for the development of new therapeutic strategies in vascular diseases.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15700 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15700

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15700

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().