Sex-specific transcriptional differences between male and female human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) after shear stress.

To assess whether there is a sex-specific response to stress, we subjected male and female HUVEC to laminar shear of 6 dyn/cm2 for 24 hours and analysed changes in gene expression. 6.7 % of all mRNAs were regulated by shear stress. Female HUVEC showed a more pronounced transcriptional response to shear than did their male counterparts. In addition to quantitative differences, a number of genes were regulated in the opposite direction between the two sexes by shear stress. HUVEC from 12 male and female donors were isolated and cultured. HUVEC from four individual male or female donors at passage 2 were grown to confluence, trypsinized and cell numbers were counted. Equal numbers of cells were mixed, seeded, and cultured to confluence. Three male and female cell pools were generated in this way. Laminar shear stress of 6 dyn/cm2 was applied for 24 hours to fully confluent cell monolayers (passage 3) using a cone-and-plate system. Cells cultured under static conditions served as controls.