Spatial Metabolomics of Human Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaques

A research paper analyzes 74 differential metabolites in human carotid atherosclerotic plaque tissues. It identifies the pro-inflammatory lipid arachidonic acid as a key molecule upregulated in unstable plaques and maps its spatial distribution. The study employs spatial metabolomics and single-cell transcriptomics to link arachidonic acid metabolism to macrophage phenotypes.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial distribution of the arachidonic acid metabolic axis within plaque tissues using spatial metabolomics data.
• Correlate the expression levels of ELOVL5 and ALOX5 genes with macrophage subsets from single-cell sequencing data.
• Validate the predictive capability of arachidonic acid for plaque instability using ROC curve analysis from the metabolomic results.
• Investigate the colocalization of 74 identified differential metabolites with inflammatory cells in stable versus unstable plaques.

Strengths

• Identifies 74 differential metabolites from human carotid atherosclerotic plaque tissues.
• Provides direct spatial evidence for the 'linoleic acid–arachidonic acid–leukotriene D4' metabolic axis within plaques.
• Integrates data from three analytical methods: metabolomics, spatial metabolomics, and single-cell transcriptomics.
• Data is shared under a permissive CC BY 4.0 license.

Limitations

• The primary data is embedded within a 107.0 KB PDF, requiring extraction for computational analysis.
• Sample size and specific row/column counts for underlying datasets are not provided.
• The study focuses specifically on human carotid artery plaques, limiting generalizability to other vascular beds.

Provenance

Source

Jiaxin Wan via figshare.

Collection Method

Metabolomic, spatial metabolomic (MALDI-MSI), and single-cell transcriptomic analysis of human carotid atherosclerotic plaque tissues collected via carotid endarterectomy.

Freshness

Last updated March 25, 2026.

Geography

Human carotid artery plaques.