Gene expression data of endothelium exposed to heme

Sickle cell disease is characterized by hemolysis, vaso-occlusion and ischemia reperfusion injury. These events cause endothelial dysfunction and vasculopathies in multiple systems However, the lack of atherosclerotic lesions has led to the idea that there are adaptive mechanisms that protect the endothelium from major vascular insults in SCD patients. The molecular bases for this phenomenon are poorly defined. This study was designed to identify the global profile of genes induced by heme in the endothelium. Human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs), and human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) were grown to confluence, and treated with freshly prepared ferric heme every 48 hours for 7 days. Total RNA was extracted, used for microarray analysis, using an Affymetric U133 plus 2.0 chip