Rat hindlimb arteries: Shunt versus Control

Arteriogenesis is defined as the development of a collateral circulation, bypassing an arterial occlusion. We have previously demonstrated that chronically elevated fluid shear stress completely normalized blood flow in femoral artery ligated rabbits. This was realized by a surgical intervention: the creation of an arterio- venous anastomosis (shunt) between the femoral artery and the accompanying vein. The aim of this study was a gene profiling approach in order to identify differentially expressed genes during collateral growth in the shunt model when compared to pre-existent collaterals (sham). Collateral arteries after shunt versus Control arteries derived from one individual rat were compared on each chip in order to identify blood shear stress responsive genes. Two condition experiment with three biological replicates (N=3 rats), and two technical replicates (N=2 microarray chips per biological comparison). N= 6 samples, consisting of N=3 Shunt collateral samples and N=3 control artery samples, from N=3 rats were hybridized on duplicate microarray chips, thereby using N=6 chips.