Endothelial transcriptional profiles of porcine coronary and iliac arteries passages 1 through 4

ABSTRACT: Atherosclerotic plaques tend to form in the major arteries at certain predictable locations. As these arteries vary in atherosusceptibility, inter-arterial differences in endothelial cell (EC) biology are of considerable interest. To explore the origin of differences observed between typical atheroprone and atheroresistant arteries, we used DNA microarrays to compare gene expression profiles of harvested porcine coronary (CECs) and iliac (IECs) artery ECs grown in static culture out to passage four. Fewer differences were observed between the transcriptional profiles of CECs and IECs in culture compared to in vivo, suggesting that most differences observed in vivo were due to distinct environmental cues in the two arteries. One-class significance of microarrays revealed that most in vivo interarterial differences disappeared in culture, as fold differences after passaging were not significant for 85% of genes identified as differentially expressed in vivo at a 5% false discovery rate. However, the three homeobox genes HOXA9, HOXA10, and HOXD3 remained under-expressed in coronary endothelium for all passages by at least 9, 8, and 2-fold, respectively. Continued differential expression despite removal from the in vivo environment suggests that primarily heritable or epigenetic mechanism(s) influence transcription of these three genes. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction confirmed expression ratios for seven genes associated with atherogenesis and over- or under-expressed by 3-fold in CECs relative to IECs. The present study provides evidence that both local environment and vascular bed origin modulate gene expression in arterial endothelium. The transcriptional differences observed here may provide new insights into pathways responsible for coronary artery susceptibility.

ORGANISM(S): Sus scrofa

PROVIDER: GSE19593 | GEO | 2010/12/18

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA122375

REPOSITORIES: GEO