Human endothelial gene expression under estradiol and oxLDL treatments

DNA microarrays were used to investigate global gene expression patterns in cultured human umbilical artery endothelial cells (HUAECs) exposed to 1 nmol/L estradiol and/or 100 µg/ml oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) for 24 hours compared to control cells. HUAECs from 15 separate cultures were exposed to control (0.1% ethanol), 1nmol/L estradiol, 100 µg/ml oxLDL, or 1nmol/L estradiol + 100 µg/ml oxLDL treatments for 24 h. Total cellular RNA was extracted. Equal amounts of RNA extracted from 3 control cells or 3 estradiol-treated cells obtained from three different cultures were pooled, achieving five biological replicates of the control, five replicates that were treated with estradiol, five replicates that were treated with oxLDL and five replicates that were treated with estradiol+oxLDL . Therefore, a total number of 20 microarrays were developed.