Clustering of Surrogates of Cardiovascular Risk Factors Results in Emergent Phenotypes in Endothelial Cells

Global gene expression of human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) submitted surrogates of cardiovascular risk factors Based on the analysis of global gene expression in human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC), we identified gene pathways and inferred cellular processes that are modulated in response to chemical hypoxia, oxidized lipids, IL-1β and oscillatory flow or combined stimuli. Our results indicate that clustering of the surrogates of risk factors is different from the sum of the individual insults that give rise to emergent phenotypes such as cell proliferation. Altogether, we provide evidence of a hierarchical effect between risk factor surrogates and advent of emergent phenotypes in response to combined stimulation. 24 Total samples were analyzed. We evaluated the roles of chemical hypoxia (CoCl2), oxidized lipids (OxPAPC), inflammation (IL-1β) and oscillatory shear stress (OSS) and CoCl2+OxPAPC+Il1B+OSS in global gene expression using laminar shear stress (LSS) as reference