Gene expression profiling of the retinal microvessels and the brain microvessels

Rat retinal microvessels (RMVs) and brain microvessels (BMVs) were mechanically isolated under ice-cold condition. Retinal and brain tissues (RT, BT) from the same animals were collected for comparisons. Total RNA were individually extracted, amplified and processed on Affymetrix rat 2.0 microarray Chips. We sought to obtain the whole gene expression profile of RMVs, RT, BMVs and BT. Differently expressed genes (DEGs) between RMVs and RT, and between RMVs and BMVs, between RT and BT were analyses. Using these DEGs, we comprehensively analyzed gene expression of the microvessels and highlighted their involvement in critical functional structures in RMVs and BMVs, such as junctional complex, transporters and signaling pathways. Totally, we analyzed four groups: brain microvessels, brain tissue, retinal microvessels and retinal tissue. Each group contains 6 biological replicates. The tissues simples were used as controls.