Identification of gene modulating vascular inflammation using chromosome 2 fragment substitutions and RNA sequencing [miRNA-Seq]

Chromosome 2 introgression from normotensive Brown Norway (BN) rats into hypertensive Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) background (consomic S2B) reduced blood pressure (BP) and vascular inflammation under normal salt diet (NSD). We hypothesized that BN chromosome 2 contains anti-inflammatory genes that could reduce BP elevation and vascular inflammation in rats fed NSD and high salt diet (HSD). We used chromosome 2 fragment substitutions to map chromosome 2 portion associated with vascular inflammation changes and next generation sequencing (NGS) to profile microRNAs in thoracic descending aorta of SS and congenic rats fed NSD or HSD. Four- to 6-week-old male SS and congenic rats containing the Brown Norway (BN) chromosome (Chr) 2 distal portion (identified as SBA or S2Ba) and middle segment (identified as SBB or S2Bb) were fed NSD or HSD (4% NaCl) up to 12-to-13 weeks old. At the end of the treatment period, total RNA was extracted from a segment of the thoracic descending aorta and microRNAs were profiled by small RNA sequencing using Illumina HiSeq 2500.