Characterization of two distinct immortalized endothelial cell lines HMEC-1 and EA.hy926 for in vitro studies: exploring the impact of calcium electroporation, Ca2+ signaling and transcriptome profile

The vascular endothelium consists of endothelial cells (ECs) with important biological functions and their impairment is associated with various pathologies. ECs vary based on tissue origin and gene expression, while their functionality depends on calcium (Ca2+) signaling. In tumors, disruption of Ca2+ homeostasis after calcium electroporation (CaEP) has been shown to elicit an enhanced antitumor effect with only minimal effect on normal tissue. The difference in response to CaEP was not only observed between cancer and normal cells, but also between different endothelial cell lines. Although several vascular EC models have been developed, there is a lack of understanding regarding the molecular basis that could help explain different responses of normal tissue to CaEP. Therefore, our study aims to determine the effect of CaEP on established immortalized human EC lines EA.hy926 and HMEC-1 in terms of cytoskeleton, Ca2+ kinetics and differences in gene expression involved in regulation of Ca2+ signaling and homeostasis. Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for human immortalized microvascular endothelial cell lines EA.hy926 and HMEC-1.