Gene expression analysis from splenocytes treated with mPVAT-conditioned media

The overall purpose of this study was to understand the impact of a high-fat diet on the perivascular microenvironment in Dahl S rats, a spontaneously hypertensive rat strain. Specifically, the study was designed to understand whether a high-fat diet promotes inflammation in the perivascular adipose tissue microenvironment. To address this, we collected mesenteric PVAT from Dahl S rats on either a control or a high-fat diet and used the PVAT to make conditioned media. We then cultured rat splenocytes in either mPVAT-conditioned media or in standard tissue culture media and activated them with a T cell-specific activator (anti-CD3/anti-CD28). We then isolated RNA from the splenocytes which was used for gene expression analysis by RNA-sequencing.