{
  "abstract": "Background: Type A aortic dissection (TAAD) is a life-threatening aortic emergency characterized by inflammatory remodeling, extracellular matrix disruption, and programmed cell death (PCD). The cell-specific transcriptional features associated with immune activation and PCD-related aortic wall injury remain incompletely defined. This study investigated PCD-associated immune remodeling in TAAD and evaluated PLAUR as a macrophage-associated marker linked to these pathological changes.\n\nMethods: Public bulk transcriptomic datasets were integrated with single-cell RNA sequencing, curated PCD-related gene sets, immune deconvolution, pathway enrichment, in silico perturbation analysis, and histological assessment of human aortic specimens.\n\nResults: TAAD tissues exhibited marked transcriptomic alterations, with 2,217 genes meeting the exploratory differential-expression criteria, accompanied by increased PCD-related transcriptional activity. Single-cell analysis indicated that macrophage-enriched clusters showed relatively high PCD-related gene-set activity, while PLAUR transcripts were predominantly detected in macrophage-enriched clusters. PLAUR was upregulated in TAAD in both training and external validation datasets and strongly correlated with sample-level PCD scores. In the training dataset, PLAUR expression showed exploratory discrimination between TAAD and control tissue samples, with an AUC of 0.858. PLAUR-high samples showed enrichment of HIF-1, JAK-STAT, necroptosis, and apoptosis-related pathways. Immune deconvolution indicated relatively higher neutrophil- and M0 macrophage-associated signatures in TAAD, with PLAUR expression positively associated with myeloid-cell-related features. In silico perturbation analysis identified cytoskeletal and actin-related transcriptional changes associated with predicted PLAUR perturbation. Histological assessment demonstrated aortic wall disorganization, collagen remodeling, elastic fiber disruption, increased TUNEL positivity, and elevated PLAUR protein expression in TAAD lesions.\n\nConclusions: PLAUR is associated with macrophage-enriched inflammatory, proteolytic, and PCD-related remodeling in TAAD and may serve as a candidate marker of these pathological features. The present findings are associative and do not establish a causal role for PLAUR in aortic wall degeneration or dissection initiation. Spatially resolved and functional studies are required to determine whether PLAUR-positive macrophage states contribute mechanistically to TAAD pathogenesis.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Medical Laboratory Section, Changde Hospital, Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University (The First People’s Hospital of Changde City)"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Tao Chen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yao Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Xing Yang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Shufang Bin"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jun Cheng"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ming Lei"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4a72g7x5hp228.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fcvm.2026.1932413",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "4a72g7x5hp228",
  "issns": [
    "2297-055X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2026.1932413/full",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-04",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4a72g7x5hp228.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T12:21:45Z",
      "native_id": "10.3389/fcvm.2026.1932413",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2026.1932413/full"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "issn:2297-055X",
      "subfield": "cardiovascular"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Integrative bulk and single-cell transcriptomic analysis identifies a PLAUR-centered macrophage-associated programmed cell death signature in type A aortic dissection",
  "title_text": "Integrative bulk and single-cell transcriptomic analysis identifies a PLAUR-centered macrophage-associated programmed cell death signature in type A aortic dissection",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-06T00:21:26Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4a72g7x5hp228",
  "venue": "Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine",
  "versions": []
}