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Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): Academy of Finland Sigrid Jusélius Foundation Adipose tissue influences the physiological and pathological processes in our body by regulating lipid storage and metabolic homeostasis. Extracellular matrix (ECM) is a dynamic and complex assemblage consisting of polysaccharides, proteogylcans and signalling proteins. Though both adipocytes and non- adipose cells of the stromal fraction contribute to ECM maintenance, role of adipose tissue ECM in the disease remains poorly characterised. High fat diet (HFD) and obesity represent major risk factors for atherosclerosis. Our overall aim in this study was to understand HFD induced changes in the adipose tissue during atherosclerosis progression using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), to identify the ligands responsible for changes in the expression of ECM components and to characterise the role of ECM protein fibrillin in disease associated tissue changes. We performed scRNA-seq in the adipose tissue of control mice and atherosclerotic LDLR-/- / ApoB100/100 subjected to 1 (early disease) or 3 months (advanced disease) of HFD. This allowed us to identify 13 different cell types in the adipose tissue of the diseased mice. Among them, we identified mesenchymal cells (MSC) undergoing changes from putatively adipogenic to fibrogenic cells. The differentially expressed genes in the MSC population exhibited functions related to ECM development, maintenance and signalling. We identified Fibrillin-1 (Fbn1) as one of the most prominent up regulated genes and studied the effect of Fbn1 knockout in ApoE-/- Fbn1C1039G+/- mice. The Fbn1 knockout mice model suited our experimental design to study the adipose tissue during atherosclerosis as the mice developed significantly large and unstable plaques characterised by large necrotic core. Our results demonstrated that adipose tissue expresses a new subtype with HFD in Fbn1 knockout mice, which could be associated with insulin resistance and fat accumulation. Fbn1 knockout led to an altered phenotype of MSCs (or adipocytes) in adipose tissue. Altogether, our analysis provides the first steps toward understanding the role of MSCs in ECM-related changes during atherosclerosis and HFD stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activation of naïve T helper cells by presentation of cognate antigen initiates a complex intracellular signaling process leading to development of functionally active effector cell population. The switch from quiescent naïve state to activated state involves a profound change of cellular metabolism, required for completion of multiple rounds of proliferation. Using ultra performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, we analyzed how this change is reflected on the cellular lipid composition in human umbilical cord blood T-cells. We found that considerable concentration changes take place during the first 72 hours after T-cell receptor activation, correlating with first rounds of activation-induced cell division. Most importantly, composition of phosphatidylcholines and phosphatidylethanolamines exhibited consistent trend towards shorter and more saturated molecular species. Together with related transcriptomics data, the results clearly suggested induction of de novofatty acid synthesis and accumulation of endogenously synthesized fatty acids into the cellular membranes, leading to partial remodeling of the cellular lipidome in the newly developed effector cell population.