Sex-based differences in fibrosis markers in human abdominal aortic aneurysms

In female abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) tissue, fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is notably elevated and FAP-positive fibroblasts show increased fibrosis-marker expression compared with male AAA.

• Why it matters: Fibrosis involvement in AAA progression is unclear, and sex-specific differences could affect which molecular targets best reflect disease severity.
• What they did: Multi-centered transcriptomic profiling of aortic samples (15 AAA, 5 non-AAA) used scRNA-seq, followed by histopathological and molecular assays in 26 AAA (male and female) and 29 normal abdominal aortas (male and female) to quantify fibrosis markers and signaling.
• The result: FAP and COL1A1 are more highly expressed in female AAA, and FAP-positive fibroblasts in fAAA exhibit a pro-fibrotic phenotype, supporting FAP as a sex-specific tissue biomarker.

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