bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/801266; this version posted October 10, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. A single-cell transcriptional atlas identifies extensive heterogeneity in the cellular composition of tendons Jacob B Swanson1, Andrea J De Micheli2, Nathaniel P Disser1, Leandro M Martinez1, Nicholas R Walker1,3, Benjamin D Cosgrove2, Christopher L Mendias1,3,* 1Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA 2Meining School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 3Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA *Corresponding Author Christopher Mendias, PhD Hospital for Special Surgery 535 E 70th St New York, NY 10021 USA +1 212-606-1785
[email protected] Keywords: tenocyte; tendon fibroblast; pericyte; single-cell RNA sequencing bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/801266; this version posted October 10, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Abstract Tendon is a dense, hypocellular connective tissue that transmits forces between muscles and bones. Cellular heterogeneity is increasingly recognized as an important factor in the biological basis of tissue homeostasis and disease, but little is known about the diversity of cells that populate tendon. Our objective was to explore the heterogeneity of cells in mouse Achilles tendons using single-cell RNA sequencing. We identified 13 unique cell types in tendons, including 4 previously undescribed populations of fibroblasts.