Sarah A. Ware, Lirong Zheng, Milad Almasian, Lorenzo M. Fernandes, Chitkale Hiremath, Jonathan A. Brewer, Zhenlong Wu, Claudia Muñoz Rodríguez, Shuyue Zhou, Denise K. Marciano, Yichen Ding, Michael T. Dellinger, Dan Tong
This is the first study detailing normal lymphatic vessel distribution at various cardiac anatomical sites using a lymphatic reporter mouse model, multiple markers, and modern imaging modalities, providing a blueprint for future studies. We also performed integrated single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) analysis to define the cellular and transcriptional heterogeneity of cardiac lymphatic endothelial cells. Finally, our study underscores the nonspecific nature of lymphatic markers and emphasizes the necessity of using at least two markers to identify lymphatic vessels.