Effects of glucose transporter expression on VSMC

Hypothesis: Overexpression of the GLUT1 facilitative glucose transporter, in A7r5 vascular smooth muscle cells, is sufficient and/or necessary to induce alterations in gene expression which influence apoptosis, growth, and proliferation. Scientific Approach: A7r5 rat embryonic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) (ATCC, CRL-1444) were infected for 72 hours with adenoviral vectors containing human GLUT1 or empty vector controls at a multiplicity of infection of 10 (MOI of 1 = 100 particles/cell) and grown in both high glucose (25mM) and low glucose (5.5mM) media. The human GLUT1 cDNA adenoviral vector and empty vector controls were a gift from Dr Arno Kumagai (University of Michigan). Total RNA was isolated using TRIzol (Invitrogen Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA), followed by extraction with phenol/chloroform until the interface was clear. Total RNA was further purified using Qiagen RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen 74106). Immunoblot analysis was conducted to confirm GLUT1 overexpression at the time of Total RNA isolation (72 hours post-infection) for each condition. Number of chips: Total RNA was isolated from each of 2 conditions (control cells in low glucose (5.5mM), and GLUT1 overexpressing cells in low glucose), on three separate days and pooled to obtain one sample for each condition. In total we submitted two samples.