Sox13 is a novel flow-sensitive transcription factor that prevents inflammation by repressing chemokine expression in endothelial cells

SOX13 was identified as a novel flow-sensitive transceiption factor. We found that siRNA-mediated knockdown of SOX13 increased endothelial inflammatory responses even under the unidirectional laminar shear stress (ULS, mimicking s-flow) condition. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we conducted an RNAseq study in HAECs treated with SOX13 siRNA under shear conditions (ULS vs. oscillatory shear mimicking d-flow). We found 94 downregulated and 40 upregulated genes that changed in a shear- and SOX13-dependent manner. Several cytokines, including CXCL10 and CCL5, were the most strongly upregulated genes in HAECs treated with SOX13 siRNA. Overall design: HAECs treated with siRNA against SOX13 or control siRNA for 24h were subjected to unidirectional laminar shear stress (LS) or oscillatory shear stress (OS) for the following 24h (n=4 biological replicates in each group). Total RNAs were collected and submitted for RNAsequencing