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American Heart Association

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Final ID: Su4116

The epigenomic landscape of single vascular cells reflects developmental origin and identifies disease risk loci

Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Vascular sites have distinct susceptibility to atherosclerosis and aneurysm, yet the biological underpinning of vascular site-specific disease risk is largely unknown. Vascular tissues have different developmental origins that may influence global chromatin accessibility, and understanding differential chromatin accessibility, gene expression profiles, and gene regulatory networks (GRN) on single cell resolution may give key insight into vascular site-specific disease risk. Here, we performed single cell chromatin accessibility (scATACseq) and gene expression profiling (scRNAseq) of healthy adult mouse vascular tissue from three vascular sites, 1) aortic root and ascending aorta, 2) brachiocephalic and carotid artery, and 3) descending thoracic aorta. Through a comprehensive analysis at single cell resolution, we discovered key regulatory enhancers to not only be cell type, but vascular site specific in vascular smooth muscle (SMC), fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. We identified epigenetic markers of embryonic origin with differential chromatin accessibility of key developmental transcription factors such as Tbx20, Hand2, Gata4, and Hoxb family members and discovered transcription factor motif accessibility to be cell type and vascular site specific. Notably, we found ascending fibroblasts to have distinct epigenomic patterns, highlighting SMAD2/3 function to suggest a differential susceptibility to TGFβ, a finding we confirmed through in vitro culture of primary adventitial fibroblasts. Finally, to understand how vascular site-specific enhancers may regulate human genetic risk for disease, we integrated genome wide association study (GWAS) data for ascending and descending aortic dimension, and through using a distinct base resolution deep learning model to predict variant effect on chromatin accessibility, ChromBPNet, to predict variant effects in SMC, Fibroblasts, and Endothelial cells within ascending aorta, carotid, and descending aorta sites of origin. We reveal that although cell type remains a primary influence on variant effects, vascular site modifies cell type transcription and highlights genomic regions that are enriched for specific TF motif footprints — including MEF2A, SMAD3, and HAND2. This work supports a paradigm that the epigenomic and transcriptomic landscape of vascular cells are cell type and vascular site-specific and that site-specific enhancers govern complex genetic drivers of disease risk.
  • Weldy, Chad  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Zhao, Quanyi  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Sharma, Disha  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Nguyen, Trieu  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Kundu, Ramendra  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Fischbein, Michael  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Engreitz, Jesse  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Kundaje, Anshul  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Cheng, Paul  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Quertermous, Thomas  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Kundu, Soumya  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Monteiro, Joao  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Gu, Wenduo  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Pedroza, Albert  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Dalal, Alex  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Worssam, Matthew  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Li, Daniel  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Palmisano, Brian  ( Stanford University , Menlo Park , California , United States )
  • Author Disclosures:
    Chad Weldy: DO have relevant financial relationships ; Consultant:AIRNA Biosciences:Active (exists now) ; Consultant:Avidity Biosciences:Active (exists now) | Quanyi Zhao: No Answer | Disha Sharma: No Answer | Trieu Nguyen: DO NOT have relevant financial relationships | Ramendra Kundu: DO NOT have relevant financial relationships | Michael Fischbein: DO NOT have relevant financial relationships | Jesse Engreitz: DO have relevant financial relationships ; Speaker:Roche Genentech:Past (completed) ; Individual Stocks/Stock Options:BioRad Laboratories:Active (exists now) ; Individual Stocks/Stock Options:Alnylam:Active (exists now) ; Individual Stocks/Stock Options:Verve Therapeutics:Active (exists now) ; Research Funding (PI or named investigator):Pfizer:Active (exists now) ; Speaker:GSK plc:Past (completed) | Anshul Kundaje: No Answer | Paul Cheng: No Answer | Thomas Quertermous: DO NOT have relevant financial relationships | Soumya Kundu: No Answer | Joao Monteiro: DO NOT have relevant financial relationships | Wenduo Gu: No Answer | Albert Pedroza: DO NOT have relevant financial relationships | Alex Dalal: No Answer | Matthew Worssam: DO NOT have relevant financial relationships | Daniel Li: DO NOT have relevant financial relationships | Brian Palmisano: No Answer
Meeting Info:

Scientific Sessions 2025

2025

New Orleans, Louisiana

Session Info:

Emerging Pathways and in Vascular Aging and Disease

Sunday, 11/09/2025 , 03:15PM - 04:15PM

Abstract Poster Board Session

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