Gene expression in TNF treated rat aortic rings cultured in collagen or fibrin gels.

Angiogenesis in cultures of rat aorta begins with neovessels sprouting from the aortic explant within the first three days of culture. We used microarrys to examine the effects of TNF-alpha on gene expression in both fibrin and collagen gels during the first 48 hours or culture. Rat aortic rings were cultured in either collagen or fibrin maticies. Half of the cultures from each matrix group were treated with 10ng/ml recombinant rat TNF-alpha, and half were left untreated. These cultures were used to prepare total RNA