A model of anti-angiogenesis: differential transcriptosome profiling of microvascular endothelial cells from diffuse systemic sclerosis patients.
The objective of this work was to identify genes involved in impaired angiogenesis by comparing the transcriptosomes of microvascular endothelial cells from normal subjects and patients affected by systemic sclerosis (SSc), as a unique human model disease characterized by insufficient angiogenesis. Total RNAs, prepared from skin endothelial cells of clinically healthy subjects and SSc patients affected by the diffuse form of the disease, were pooled, labeled with fluorochromes, and hybridized to 14,000 70 mer oligonucleotide microarrays. Genes were analyzed based on gene expression levels and categorized into different functional groups based on the description of the Gene Ontology (GO) consortium to identify statistically significant terms. Quantitative PCR was used to validate the array results. After data processing and application of the filtering criteria, the analyzable features numbered 6,724. About 3% of analyzable transcripts (199) were differentially expressed, 141 more abundantly and 58 less abundantly in SSc endothelial cells. Surprisingly, SSc endothelial cells over-express pro-angiogenic transcripts, but also show up-regulation of genes exerting a powerful negative control, and down-regulation of genes critical to cell migration and extracellular matrix-cytoskeleton coupling, all alterations that provide an impediment to correct angiogenesis. We also identified transcripts controlling haemostasis, inflammation, stimulus transduction, transcription, protein synthesis, and genome organization. An up-regulation of transcripts related to protein degradation and ubiquitination was observed in SSc endothelial cells. We have validated data on the main anti-angiogenesis-related genes by RT-PCR, western blotting, in vitro angiogenesis and immunohistochemistry. These observations indicate that microvascular endothelial cells of patients with SSc show abnormalities in a variety of genes that are able to account for defective angiogenesis.
Giusti
Betti
B
Department of Medical and Surgical Critical Care - DENOTHE, University of Florence, Florence, Italy. b.giusti@DAC.UNIFI.IT
Fibbi
Gabriella
G
Margheri
Francesca
F
Serratì
Simona
S
Rossi
Luciana
L
Poggi
Filippo
F
Lapini
Ilaria
I
Magi
Alberto
A
Del Rosso
Angela
A
Cinelli
Marina
M
Guiducci
Serena
S
Kahaleh
Bashar
B
Bazzichi
Laura
L
Bombardieri
Stefano
S
Matucci-Cerinic
Marco
M
Gensini
Gian Franco
GF
Del Rosso
Mario
M
Abbate
Rosanna
R
D001706:Biopsy; D002465:Cell Movement; D017931:DNA Primers; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008833:Microcirculation; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012016:Reference Values; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D017931:DNA Primers; D011506:Proteins; D012313:RNA