This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of China (82070450 to C.T.and 82170466 to L.Z.) and the fellowship of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (7121102223 to F.L.).

All animal procedures described below were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Soochow University.
1. Reagents and materials preparation
<ol>
	<li>Utilize 1x PBS without calcium and magnesium and 2.5 U/mL heparin sodium salt to prepare the perfusion solution. Store at 4 &#176;C, and precool on ice when used.</li>
	<li>Prepare dissociation reagent A that contains 125 CDU/mL collagenase II and 60 U/mL DNase I by diluting 1250 CDU/mL collagenase II an...

Two-Step Cell Digestion of Mouse Carotid Artery

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Here we provide a detailed protocol for the preparation of a high-quality single-cell suspension from the carotid artery of wild-type mice, in which a two-step digestion method integrating the digestion process of collagenase/DNase and trypsin was constructed. After the quality check of the single-cell suspension, we found that it satisfied the requirements for single-cell sequencing, with the viability of cells over 85% and a high cell concentration. Moreover, a variety of cell types in the carotid artery, including VSM...

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.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>0.25% EDTA-free trypsin</td>
			<td>Beyotime</td>
			<td>C0205</td>
			<td>Dilute 1 mL of 0.25% EDTA-free trypsin into 1 mL of 1x PBS.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>0.9% NaCl saline solution</td>
			<td>Beyotime</td>
			<td>ST341</td>
			<td>Dilute the heparin sodium solution into a final concentration of 10 mg/mL</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>1 mL syringes</td>
			<td>&#160;SKJYLEAN</td>
			<td>sk-r009</td>
			<td>To perform cardiac perfusion</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>1.5 mL centrifuge tubes</td>
			<td>KIRGEN</td>
			<td>KG2211W</td>
			<td>To centrifuge the tissue piece and cell suspension</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>20 mL syringes</td>
			<td>SKJYLEAN</td>
			<td>sk-r013</td>
			<td>To perform cardiac perfusion</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>40 &#181;m cell strainer</td>
			<td>JETBIOFIL</td>
			<td>css010040</td>
			<td>To filter undigested tissue fragments</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>AO/PI kit</td>
			<td>Hengrui Biological</td>
			<td>RE010212</td>
			<td>To identify whether the cell is alive or dead</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Automated cell counter</td>
			<td>Countstar</td>
			<td>Mira FL</td>
			<td>To analyze the cell morphology and cell viability of digested carotid vascular cells</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cell Ranger software</td>
			<td>10&#215; Genomics</td>
			<td>3.0.2</td>
			<td>To process Chromium single-cell RNA-seq output and perform clustering and gene expression analysis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Chromium Single Cell 3&#39;Reagent Kits v3</td>
			<td>10&#215; Genomics</td>
			<td>1000075</td>
			<td>To prepare single-cell RNA-seq libraries of single-cell suspension</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Collagenase II</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>C6885</td>
			<td>Dilute with HBSS to a final concentration of 125 CDU/mL</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Deoxyribonuclease I</td>
			<td>Worthington</td>
			<td>LS002140</td>
			<td>Dilute with HBSS to a final concentration of 60 U/mL</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fetal bovine serum&#160;</td>
			<td>HyClone</td>
			<td>SH30088.03</td>
			<td>Termination of the digestion reaction</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hank&#39;s balanced salt solution&#160;</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>14175095</td>
			<td>Store at the room temperture</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Heparin sodium salt</td>
			<td>Solarbio Life Science</td>
			<td>H8060</td>
			<td>Dilute with 0.9% NaCl to a final concentration of 10 mg/mL</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Microcentrifuge</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>75002560</td>
			<td>Applied for spining down the tissues and cell pellets</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>NovaSeq 6000&#160;</td>
			<td>Illumina</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Sequencer</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Phosphate-buffered saline</td>
			<td>Solarbio Life Science</td>
			<td>P1000</td>
			<td>Used for cardiac perfusion and resuspension of cells</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Seurat package- R</td>
			<td>Satija Lab</td>
			<td>3.1.2</td>
			<td>To performed dimensionality reduction, visualization, and analysis of scRNA-sequencing data</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Six-well cell culture plates</td>
			<td>NEST</td>
			<td>703002</td>
			<td>Place the vascular tissue</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Water bath</td>
			<td>Jinghong</td>
			<td>DK-S22</td>
			<td>Keep the digestion temperature at 37 &#176;C</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

preparation of a single-cell suspension from mouse carotid arteries for single-cell sequencing

Carotid arteries are major blood vessels in the neck that supply blood and oxygen to the brain, but carotid stenosis occurs when carotid arteries are clogged by plaque. Revealing the cellular composition of the carotid artery at the single-cell level is essential for treating carotid atherosclerosis. However, there is no ready-to-use protocol for the preparation of single-cell suspensions from carotid arteries. To obtain a suitable protocol for the dissociation of normal carotid arteries at the single-cell level with less damage to cells, we designed a two-step digestion method by integrating the digestion process of collagenase/DNase and trypsin. 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, a median of ~2500 transcripts per cell were detected in each carotid artery cell. Notably, a variety of cell types of the normal carotid artery, including vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), fibroblasts, endothelial cells (ECs), and macrophages and dendritic cells (M&#966;/DCs), were concurrently detectable. This protocol may be applied to prepare a single-cell suspension of blood vessels from other tissues with appropriate modifications.

Author Spotlight: Vascular Tissue Dissociation and Exploring Single-Cell Subclusters for Targeted Therapy 

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.

This protocol describes a two-step cell digestion method for preparing a single-cell suspension of mouse carotid arteries (Figure 1). This two-step cell digestion method combines collagenase/DNase with trypsin to effectively dissociate the mouse carotid vascular wall to obtain high-quality single-cell suspensions for single-cell sequencing. After dissociation, the cell concentration and cell viability were calculated by an automated cell counter. The bright field showed the morphology of car...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Vascular Tissue Dissociation and Exploring Single-Cell Subclusters for Targeted Therapy at JoVE.com

Here we describe a two-step cell digestion protocol for preparing a single-cell suspension of mouse carotid arteries.

Carotid arteries are major blood vessels in the neck that supply blood and oxygen to the brain, but carotid stenosis occurs when carotid arteries are ...

preparation-single-cell-suspension-from-mouse-carotid-arteries-for