Gene expression in macrophages derived form wild-type and Ndfst1-deficient mice before and after foam cell conversion

In order to examine the role of macrophage heparan sulfate proteoglycans in atherogenesis, we inactivated the biosynthetic gene N-acetylglucosamine N-deacetylase-N-sulfotransferase 1 (Ndst1) in macrophages. In order to determine the impact of altering Ndst1 expression, we crossbred mice bearing a conditional loxP-flanked (“floxed”) allele of Ndst1 (Ndst1f/f) to transgenic mice expressing the bacterial Cre recombinase under control of the lysozyme 2 promoter (LysMCre) to drive inactivation of the gene in myeloid cells. We compared the transcriptome of bone marrow derived macrophages from Ndst1f/fLysMCre- and Ndst1f/fLysMCre+ macrophages in basal growth medium and after foam cell conversion using 50µg/ml of aggregated LDL (agLDL) to asses the impact of altered macrophage heparan sulfate sulfation on gene expression. Total RNA obtained from bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM) derived form two wild-type and two Ndfst1-deficient mice before and after foam cell conversion and analyzed in diplicate (n=4 for each conditions; total of 4 conditions)