Single Cells, Spatial Maps, Big Insights: Rewiring Heart Disease at the Molecular Level | JACC Baran

Hosts Mitsuaki Sawano, MD, and colleagues welcome Dr. Jun Yasuhara (Center for Cardiovascular Research and Heart Center, Nationwide Children’s Hospital) and Dr. Toshiomi Katsuki (Saitama City Hospital) for a Basic to Translational Science special. Dr. Jun Yasuhara presents his mouse model study on congenital aortic valve disease, showing how disruption of NOTCH1 and GATA5 produces a highly penetrant, clinically relevant bicuspid aortic valve and progressive aortic stenosis phenotype. Dr. Toshiomi Katsuki highlights his work on Scarb1 in endothelial cells, revealing how this receptor mediates maladaptive crosstalk with fibroblasts under pressure overload. Using single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, his team mapped pathogenic signaling networks and demonstrated that knocking out Scarb1 or pharmacologically inhibiting it attenuates heart failure progression, positioning endothelial cells as a novel therapeutic target.