Human Adipose Tissue Atlas v1.0 — Vascular cells

Pericytes

Ontology Term: pericyteCL:0000669
Synonyms Terms that have the same, or nearly the same, meaning as the selected cell type.: adventitial reticular cell, pericyte cell, adventitial cell, pericyte of Rouget, cell of Rouget, ARC
Category Class of which the cell type is a subclass.: mural cellCL:0008034
Ontology Assessment Disagreements with any aspect of the Cell Ontology.: —
Marker Gene Evidence Gene markers used by researcher to assign this cell annotation.: STEAP4, COL25A1
Canonical Marker Genes: STEAP4, COL25A1
Negative Marker Genes Genes expected to be absent, or expressed at a notably low level, in these cells, and whose absence supports the assignment of this cell annotation.: —
Rationale: STEAP4 (STEAP family member 4) and COL25A1 (collagen type XXV alpha 1) show enriched expression in pericytes in single-nucleus adipose tissue datasets, and are used here to identify this population. Together these markers identify pericytes within the mural cell compartment and distinguish them from smooth muscle cells and stromal populations in adipose tissue.
Rationale DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01296-9