isolation and digestion of mouse carotid artery for single-cell suspension preparation

Two-Step Cell Digestion of Mouse Carotid Artery

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with risk factors such as high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, and hemodynamics1. Carotid artery bifurcations are prone to hemodynamic changes and lead to carotid plaque formation. The clinical presentation of carotid atherosclerosis can be acute such as stroke and transient cerebral ischemia, or chronic such as recurrent transient cerebral ischemia and vascular dementia2. Mechanically, carotid plaque is the outcome of the interaction between different vessel wall cells and various blood cells under pathological conditions. Therefore, revealing the single-cell atlas of carotid vessels under physiological and pathological conditions is particularly important for preventing and treating carotid plaque development.
Single-cell RNA sequencing is one of the most powerful technologies of biological research because of its ultrahigh resolution and detection of cell heterogeneity from the same cell type of organisms3,4. Researchers have used single-cell RNA sequencing to conduct research in many fields, such as cardiovascular disease5 and cancer6. However, quickly and accurately separating tissues into single cells is still one of the main challenges. Enzymatic dissociation is a commonly used method that dominantly includes collagenase, papain, trypsin, DNase, and hyaluronidase. Specifically, collagenases are the major enzyme species for single-cell digestion, mainly hydrolyzing collagen components in connective tissues. Different collagenase types are applicable for the dissociation of different tissues, such as the mammary gland7, glomerulus8, iridocorneal angle9, knee joint10, aorta11, and lung12. Due to the unique physiological properties of different tissues, dissociation using the same method may cause many troubles in acquiring single cells, such as low cell viability, low cell number, and large cell debris. Therefore, the invention of digestion methods for different tissues is essential for preparing high-quality single-cell suspensions.
This protocol aims to develop a two-step cell digestion method to prepare a single-cell suspension of the carotid artery of wild-type mice. According to the characteristics of the carotid artery, we combined collagenase/DNase with trypsin to obtain a high-quality single-cell suspension of the mouse carotid artery because collagenase can hydrolyze collagen of the carotid tissues, which was further digested by trypsin into a single-cell suspension. Acridine orange/propidium iodide (AO/PI) dual-fluorescence counting was used to detect cell viability and concentration, and it was found that the single-cell suspension satisfied the requirements for single-cell sequencing, with the viability of cells over 85% and a high cell concentration. After single-cell data processing, four cell types, including vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), fibroblasts, endothelial cells (ECs), and macrophages and dendritic cells (M&#966;/DCs), were identified in normal mouse carotid arteries after digestion. The advantages of this protocol are that: 1) multiple cell types in the carotid artery can be identified, 2) cell viability is well preserved, and 3) it can be easily repeated without special equipment. This protocol is suitable for researchers who are interested in studying single-cell multiomics of the mouse carotid arteries. This protocol may also be helpful in the dissociation of other blood vessels with appropriate modifications.

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Preparation of a Single-Cell Suspension from Mouse Carotid Arteries for Single-Cell Sequencing

Low solubility and the larger cell debrief are the main difficulties of vascular tissue dissociation. Our two steps or digestion method is very suitable for carotid tissue dissociation and may be used to prepare single cell suspicions for other vessels with minor modifications, making it very helpful in cardiovascular research. This protocol is suitable for obtaining multiple cell types in the carotid artery, and it can be easily repeated without special equipment.In the future, we aim to use cell subclasses discovered by single cell ion sequencing for targeted therapy of cardiovascular disease.

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Isolation and Digestion of Mouse Carotid Artery for Single-Cell Suspension Preparation  

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