Gene expression during first day of collagen gel culture of rat aortic rings

Angiogenesis in collagen gel cultures of rat aorta begins with neovessels sprouting from the aortic explant within the first three days of culture. We used microarrays to detail the pattern of gene expression underlying initial 24 hours of growth, prior to the sprouting of visible neovessles, and identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes during this process. Either freshly harvested aortic rings, representing day 0, or collagen gel cultures of rat aorta were grown in serum free medium and used to prepare total RNA.