Abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (Loft et al., 2026, Nature Met)

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Cell Metadata

SMCs

Ontology Term: smooth muscle cellCL:0000192
Synonyms Terms that have the same, or nearly the same, meaning as the selected cell type.: SMCs, non-striated muscle cell, myocytes, smooth muscle, smooth muscle fiber
Category Class of which the cell type is a subclass.: muscle cellCL:0000187
Ontology Assessment Disagreements with any aspect of the Cell Ontology.: —
Marker Gene Evidence Gene markers used by researcher to assign this cell annotation.: MYOCD, MYH11
Canonical Marker Genes: MYOCD, MYH11
Rationale: MYOCD (myocardin) is a key transcriptional co-activator that drives smooth muscle differentiation and contractile gene expression. MYH11, encoding smooth muscle myosin heavy chain, is a definitive marker of differentiated, contractile SMCs. Together, MYOCD and MYH11 reliably identify smooth muscle cell populations and distinguish them from pericytes and other mesenchymal or stromal cells.
Rationale DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01296-9

Set of Labels Description: Annotation of all broad canonical cell populations present in AT were based on previously described markers from Loft et al. 2026 (PMID: 40360756).
Annotation Method: manual

Ontology Term: smooth muscle cellCL:0000192
Synonyms Terms that have the same, or nearly the same, meaning as the selected cell type.: SMCs, non-striated muscle cell, myocytes, smooth muscle, smooth muscle fiber
Category Class of which the cell type is a subclass.: muscle cellCL:0000187
Ontology Assessment Disagreements with any aspect of the Cell Ontology.: —
Marker Gene Evidence Gene markers used by researcher to assign this cell annotation.: MYOCD, MYH11
Canonical Marker Genes: MYOCD, MYH11
Rationale: MYOCD (myocardin) is a key transcriptional co-activator that drives smooth muscle differentiation and contractile gene expression. MYH11, encoding smooth muscle myosin heavy chain, is a definitive marker of differentiated, contractile SMCs. Together, MYOCD and MYH11 reliably identify smooth muscle cell populations and distinguish them from pericytes and other mesenchymal or stromal cells.
Rationale DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01296-9

Set of Labels Description: Annotation of all broad canonical cell populations present in AT were based on previously described markers from Loft et al. 2026 (PMID: 40360756).
Annotation Method: manual