Analysis of age-related vascular gene expression in mice

Analyses of the age-related changes that occur at a gene expression level and transcriptional profile have not been elucidated in depth. To determine the changes of the vascular transcriptome, we conducted gene expression microarray experiments on aortas of adult and old mice, in which age-related vascular dysfunction was confirmed by increased stiffness and associated systolic hypertension C57BL/6 mice obtained from Janvier (Saint Berthevin, France) were aged 6 months (n=6) and 20 (n=6) months and water and standard rodent chow were fed ad libitum. Briefly, the vessel was flushed thoroughly with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), through the left ventricle of the heart, cleaned of periadventitial fat and connective tissues, and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 °C.目前针对基因表达水平与转录谱层面发生的衰老相关变化，尚未得到深入阐释。为明确血管转录组的衰老相关变化，我们对成年与老年小鼠的主动脉开展了基因表达微阵列实验；其中20月龄老年小鼠的血管功能衰老障碍已通过血管僵硬度升高及伴随的收缩期高血压得到验证。实验所用的C57BL/6小鼠购自法国圣贝坦（Saint Berthevin）的Janvier公司，分别为6月龄（n=6）与20月龄（n=6），实验期间自由饮水并饲喂标准啮齿类动物饲料。简要而言，我们通过心脏左心室用预冷的磷酸盐缓冲液（phosphate-buffered saline, PBS）对血管进行充分冲洗，剥离血管外膜周围的脂肪与结缔组织后，迅速置于液氮中速冻，并于-80 ℃条件下保存。