Expression data from primary rat aortic smooth muscle cells

Electrochemical gradients of monovalent cations across the plasma membrane (high intracellular potassium, [K+]i vs low intracellular sodium, [Na+]i) are created by the Na+,K+-pump and determine a large variety of physiologically important processes. We hypothesized that transcriptomics changes triggered by hypoxia are at least partially caused by Na+i/K+i-mediated excitation-transcription coupling . We used microarrays for identification and functional characterization of [Na+]i/]K+]i-sensitive transcriptome in RASMC Quiescent cells were washed with K+-free DMEM and incubated for 6 hr at 37oC in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO2/balance air in control DMEM, K+-free DMEM and DMEM containing 3 mM ouabain. Total RNA was extracted from cells grown in 6-well plates with TRIzol® reagent and purified with RNeasy® MinElute cleanup kit, following the manufacturers’ protocols. Microarray experiments were performed with GeneChip® Rat Gene 1.0 ST array.