A cross-organ single-cell analysis of hypertension
- Qiongzi Qiu
- Yong Liu
- Hong Xue
- Rajan Pandey
- Jing Liu
- Lishu He
- Pengyuan Liu
- Bhavika Therani
- Vinod Kumar
- Jing Huang
- Shima Sadri
- Maya Guenther
- Kristie Usa
- Michael Grzybowski
- Mark A. Vanden Avond
- Andrew S. Greene
- Allen W. Cowley
- Sridhar Rao
- Aron M. Geurts
- Mingyu Liang
2026-08-13
Hypertension is a leading cause of disease burden and mortality. Here, we present a single-cell analysis of hypertension and end-organ damage across six organs and tissues in angiotensin II–treated mice, Dahl salt–sensitive rats, and spontaneously hypertensive rats. We identified gene programs associated with blood pressure and renal injury, including a conserved vascular smooth muscle cell program and cross-segment renal tubular programs, along with tissue-specialized endothelial adaptations and coordinated changes across cell types in select organs. Integration with human genomic data revealed model-specific and shared cell type–trait links. We prioritized a noncoding variant (rs28451064) and used genome editing to demonstrate its in vivo effect on blood pressure and allele-specific regulation of local genes. Our study provides a multimodel, cross-organ cellular resource for hypertension research.