Overexpression of Transcription Factor GATA6 in Human Coronary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells in vitro

Vascular smooth muscle cell plasticity plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of vascular diseases. Despite compelling evidence demonstrating the importance of transcription factor GATA6 in vascular smooth muscle, the functional role of GATA6 remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of GATA6 on cell migration and to gain insight into GATA6-sensitive genes in smooth muscle. Therefore, we performed Affymetrix microarray analysis on human coronary artery smooth muscle cells after overexpressing GATA6 by adenovirus transduction and compared it to control which are cell transduced with Ad-CMV-null. Overexpression of human GATA6 gene was achieved using adenoviral constructs. Cells were transduced 24 hours after seeding with 100 MOI of Ad-CMV-GATA6. Media was changed after 96 hours of virus transduction and kept for additional 48 hours. Ad-CMV-null was used as a control.