Genome-wide analysis of long noncoding RNA and messager RNA expression in ApoE-deficient mice

Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory disease with high prevalence and has become the first reason for death worldwide. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non-coding RNAs with a length of >200 bp. LncRNAs participate in many biological and pathological processes such as carcinogenesis, cardiovascular diseases. The present study was designed to investigate the lncRNA and mRNA expression in the aorta of diet-induced ApoE(-/-) mice using microarray analysis. The homozygous male apoE(-/-) mice were randomly divided into two groups, with 3 animals for each group. The normal diet group was fed with normal chow, while the treated group was fed with a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet containing 20% fat and 2.5% cholesterol. The treatment duration is 8-week. After treatment, the aorta of each mouse was taken, and the lncRNA and mRNAs profiles were detected using Agilent mouse lncRNA Microarray (4*180K, Design ID: 049801) which contains 51302 lncRNAs and 39430 mRNAs. As a result, a total of 354 differentially expressed lncRNAs, including 168 up-regulated and 186 down-regulated, were identified (≥2.0 folds). Simultaneously, we also identified 357 differentially expressed protein coding mRNAs from the same chip, including 211 up-regulated 146 down-regulated mRNAs. The present study identified a panel of dysregulated lncRNAs and mRNAs that may be potential biomarkers or drug targets and correlated with the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The homozygous male apoE(-/-) mice were randomly divided into two groups, with 3 animals for each group. The normal diet group was fed with normal chow, while the treated group were fed with a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet containing 20% fat and 2.5% cholesterol. The treatment duration is 8-week. After treatment, the aorta of each mouse was taken, and the lncRNA and mRNAs profiles were detected using Agilent mouse lncRNA Microarray (4*180K, Design ID: 049801) which contains 51302 lncRNAs and 39430 mRNAs.