Spatial Metabolomics of Arachidonic Acid in Human Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaques

The study analyzed human carotid artery atherosclerotic plaque tissues collected via carotid endarterectomy, identifying 74 differential metabolites. It applied spatial metabolomics and single-cell transcriptomics to compare stable and unstable plaques, focusing on the pro-inflammatory lipid arachidonic acid (AA) and its metabolic axis.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial distribution of the 74 identified differential metabolites, particularly arachidonic acid, within plaque tissues using mass spectrometry imaging data.
• Investigate the association between arachidonic acid upregulation and macrophage phenotypes through single-cell sequencing data on ELOVL5 and ALOX5 expression.
• Validate the predictive capability of arachidonic acid for plaque instability using the provided ROC curve analysis results.

Strengths

• Identifies 74 differential metabolites from human carotid atherosclerotic plaque analysis.
• Provides direct spatial evidence for the 'linoleic acid–AA–leukotriene D4' metabolic axis within plaques.
• Integrates multiple analytical methods: metabolomics, spatial metabolomics, and single-cell transcriptomics.

Limitations

• The dataset is contained within a 96.5 KB PDF file, limiting direct computational analysis of raw data.
• Sample size and specific row/column counts for underlying data tables are not provided.
• Findings are specific to human carotid atherosclerotic plaques and may not generalize to other vascular beds.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Jiaxin Wan.

Collection Method

Human carotid artery atherosclerotic plaque tissues collected via carotid endarterectomy (CEA), analyzed with metabolomics, spatial metabolomics (MALDI-MSI), and single-cell transcriptomics.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25.

Geography

Human carotid artery plaques.