title: Endovascular biopsy: Strategy for analyzing gene expression profiles of individual endothelial cells obtained from human vessels✩.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a strategy of achieving targeted collection of endothelial cells (ECs) by endovascular methods and analyzing the gene expression profiles of collected single ECs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  134 ECs and 37 leukocytes were collected from four patients' intra-iliac artery endovascular guide wires by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) and analyzed by single-cell quantitative RT-PCR for expression profile of 48 genes. Compared to CD45+leukocytes, the ECs expressed higher levels (p< 0.05) of EC surface markers used on FACS and other EC related genes. The gene expression profile showed that these isolated ECs fell into two clusters, A and B, that differentially expressed 19 genes related to angiogenesis, inflammation and extracellular matrix remodeling, with cluster B ECs have demonstrating similarities to senescent or aging ECs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Combination of endovascular device sampling, FACS and single-cell quantitative RT-PCR is a feasible method for analyzing EC gene expression profile in vascular lesions.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurointerventional Radiology, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Zhengda
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Devon A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Lawson
authors.affiliation: Division of Experimental Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sinclair
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chih-Yang
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ming-Derg
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurointerventional Radiology, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Steven W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Hetts
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurointerventional Radiology, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Randall T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Higashida
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurointerventional Radiology, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Dowd
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurointerventional Radiology, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Van V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Halbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Zena
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Werb
authors.affiliation: Center for Cerebrovascular Research, Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurointerventional Radiology, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Cooke
keywords: Gene expression of artery endothelial cells; Single cell quantitative RT-PCR; Targeted endothelial cell sampling