Comparison of human tissue microarray to human pericyte transcriptome yields novel perivascular cell markers

CY Hsu, MG Salazar, S Miller, C Meyers… - Stem Cells and …, 2019 - liebertpub.com
CY Hsu, MG Salazar, S Miller, C Meyers, C Ding, W Hardy, B Péault, AW James
Stem Cells and Development, 2019liebertpub.com
Human perivascular progenitor cells, including pericytes, are well-described multipotent
mesenchymal cells giving rise to mesenchymal stem cells in culture. Despite the unique
location of pericytes, specific antigens to distinguish human pericytes from other cell types
are few. Here, we employed a human tissue microarray (Human Protein Atlas) to identify
proteins that are strongly and specifically expressed in a pericytic location within human
adipose tissue. Next, these results were cross-referenced with RNA sequencing data from …
Human perivascular progenitor cells, including pericytes, are well-described multipotent mesenchymal cells giving rise to mesenchymal stem cells in culture. Despite the unique location of pericytes, specific antigens to distinguish human pericytes from other cell types are few. Here, we employed a human tissue microarray (Human Protein Atlas) to identify proteins that are strongly and specifically expressed in a pericytic location within human adipose tissue. Next, these results were cross-referenced with RNA sequencing data from human adipose tissue pericytes, as defined as a fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) purified CD146+CD34CD31CD45 cell population. Results showed that from 105,532 core biopsies of soft tissue, 229 proteins showed strong and specific perivascular immunoreactivity, the majority of which (155) were present in the tunica intima. Next, cross-referencing with the transcriptome of FACS-derived CD146+ pericytes yielded 25 consistently expressed genes/proteins, including 18 novel antigens. A majority of these transcripts showed maintained expression after culture propagation (56% of genes). Interestingly, many novel antigens within pericytes are regulators of osteogenic differentiation. In sum, our study demonstrates the existence of novel pericyte markers, some of which are conserved in culture that may be useful for future efforts to typify, isolate, and characterize human pericytes.
Mary Ann Liebert