Mining the Stiffness-Sensitive Transcriptome in Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Identifies Long Noncoding RNA Stiffness Regulators.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Vascular extracellular matrix stiffening is a risk factor for aortic and coronary artery disease. How matrix stiffening regulates the transcriptome profile of human aortic and coronary vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is not well understood. Furthermore, the role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the cellular response to stiffening has never been explored. This study characterizes the stiffness-sensitive (SS) transcriptome of human aortic and coronary VSMCs and identifies potential key lncRNA regulators of stiffness-dependent VSMC functions.

Approach and results

Aortic and coronary VSMCs were cultured on hydrogel substrates mimicking physiological and pathological extracellular matrix stiffness. Total RNAseq was performed to compare the SS transcriptome profi

SUBMITTER: Yu CK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5881588 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature