Atherosclerosis is a major cause of coronary artery disease and stroke. A massive and new
type of data has finally arrived in the field of atherosclerosis: single cell RNA sequencing
(scRNAseq). Recently, scRNAseq has been successfully applied to the study of atherosclerosis
to identify previously uncharacterized cell populations. scRNAseq is an effective approach
to evaluate heterogeneous cell populations by measuring the transcriptomic profiles at
the single cell level. Besides the studies of atherosclerosis, scRNAseq is being employed
in various areas of biology, including cancer research and organ development. In order to
analyze these new massive datasets, various analytic approaches have been developed. This
review aims to enhance the understanding of this new technology by exploring how the
single cell transcriptome has been applied to the study of atherosclerosis and further discuss
potential analysis of using scRNAseq.