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Characterization of the transcriptional heterogeneity present within the rat lymphatic and blood vasculatures

ABSTRACT: The goal and objective of this study was to identify the transcriptional profiles differentiating the artery, vein, and lymphatic lineages in the adult rat vasculature with particular emphasis on the unique elements of the collecting lymphatic vessel transcriptome. A 2 x 3 experimental design was utilized in which parallel arteries, veins, and lymphatics from two different tissue beds were examined. The rat thoracic duct was selected as a large, post-nodal collecting lymphatic vessel that exhibits excellent conduit-type behavior while the rat mesenteric lymphatic was selected as a smaller, pre-nodal collecting lymphatic vessel that exhibits excellent pump behavior (see Gashev AA, et al. Microcirculation. 2004 Sep;11(6):477-92. [PMID: 15371129]). The axillary artery and vein were selected for comparison to the thoracic duct due to their similar anatomical position distal to the common junction of the lymphatic and venous vascular trees and represent a large artery and large vein, respectively. The mesentery artery and vein were selected for comparison to the mesenteric lymphatic vessels due to their parallel position within the mesenteric vasculature and represent a small atery and small vein, respectively.

ORGANISM(S): Rattus norvegicus

PROVIDER: GSE17015 | GEO | 2012/06/23

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA117761

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:While blood vessels have muscular walls that undergo tonic contractions to alter vascular resistance and, thus, control blood flow, lymphatics at the level of the collecting vessels and higher have muscular walls capable of rapid phasic contractions that generate lymph flow in addition to tonic contractions that regulate lymph flow resistance. While the ability of lymphatics to undergo rapid phasic contractions has been known for several centuries, the biological elements governing this phenomenon remain unknown. In an attempt to gain insight into the structural and regulatory elements that give lymphatic vessels their unique contractile capabilities, we utilized two-color microarray analysis to compare the thoracic duct of the rat to the vena cava of the same donor animal. Total cellular RNA was isolated immediately following vessel isolation and amplified in the presence of amino allyl dUTP. The resulting modified aRNA was conjugated to either Cy3 or Cy5 dye prior to hybridization to a rat 5.7K oligonucleotide array. Analysis and filtering of the data obtained from the microarray image yielded several contractile and regulatory genes with altered expression in the thoracic duct relative to the vena cava. Further evaluation of the data obtained in this study may aid in illustrating the unique properties of the lymphatic vessel and its muscular wall. Keywords: Thoracic duct, lymphatics, microarray Four unique thoracic duct/vena cava sample pairs were individually analyzed via two-color microarray analysis yielding 4 biological replicates. To minimize dye bias, a dye balance design was utilized in which the orientation of dye assignment was alternated between vessel pairs (i.e. two thoracic duct samples were labeled with Cy3 and two were labeled with Cy5). Prior to analysis, the data from 2 of the replicates was transformed to accomodate the dye balance such that all thoracic duct data is interpreted as Cy5 and all vena cava data is interpreted as Cy3.

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Characterization of the transcriptional heterogeneity present within the rat lymphatic and blood vasculatures

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