Age-related vascular gene expression profiling in mice.
Increasing age involves a number of detrimental changes in the cardiovascular system and particularly on the large arteries. It deteriorates vascular integrity and leads to increased vascular stiffness entailing hypertension with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The consequences of continuous oxidative stress and damages to biomolecules include altered gene expression, genomic instability, mutations, loss of cell division and cellular responses to increased stress. Many studies have been performed in aged C57BL/6 mice; however, analyses of the age-related changes that occur at a gene expression level and transcriptional profile in vascular tissue have not been elucidated in depth. To determine the changes of the vascular transcriptome, we conducted gene expression microarray experiments on aortas of adult and old mice, in which age-related vascular dysfunction was confirmed by increased stiffness and associated systolic hypertension. Our results highlight differentially expressed genes overrepresented in Gene Ontology categories. Molecular interaction and reaction pathways involved in vascular functions and disease, within the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) pathway, the renin-angiotensin system and the detoxification systems are displayed. Our results provide insight to an altered gene expression profile related to age, thus offering useful clues to counteract or prevent vascular aging and its detrimental consequences.
University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Christos.Rammos@med.uni-duesseldorf.de.
Christos
C
Rammos
University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Ulrike.Hendgen-Cotta@med.uni-duesseldorf.de.
Ulrike B
UB
Hendgen-Cotta
Biological and Medical Research Center (BMFZ), Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Rene.Deenen@hhu.de.
Rene
R
Deenen
University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Julia.Pohl@med.uni-duesseldorf.de.
Julia
J
Pohl
University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Stock.pia@web.de.
Pia
P
Stock
University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Christian.hinzmann@uni-duesseldorf.de.
Christian
C
Hinzmann
University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Malte.Kelm@med.uni-duesseldorf.de.
Malte
M
Kelm
University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Tienush.Rassaf@med.uni-duesseldorf.de.
Tienush
T
Rassaf
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006973:Hypertension / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000235:genetics; D012084:Renin-Angiotensin System; D013599:Systole; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000378:metabolism
D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta
Aging; Gene expression; Microarray; Vascular