Atherosclerotic gene expression in rat
An experimental AS model was established by feeding apoE-/- rats a high-fat diet (HFD) for 0, 8, 36, or 60 weeks, representing the onset, progression, and peak plaque development of AS, respectively. The controls were wild-type (WT) rats fed an HFD or a normal chow diet (NC) and apoE-/- rats fed an NC diet. At the end of each feeding period, aortic tissue samples were collected from all groups. Bulk RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed using three biological replicates per group. scRNA-seq experiment utilized aortic tissues from 60-week diet groups (NC and HFD, n = 5 per group). Aortas from each group were pooled to generate single-cell suspensions. The cell suspension was processed for single-cell RNA sequencing using the 10x Genomics Chromium platform, encapsulating cells in oil-emulsion droplets for cDNA synthesis, followed by sequencing on the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 platform.