TWEAK/Fn14 axis is a therapeutic target for post-angioplasty restenosis

Aim: Next generation sequencing-based methods were performed to identify genes and pathways regulated by TWEAK in VSMCs Methods: Using a gene-set enrichment method, we found a functional module involved in cell proliferation defined as the minimal network connecting top TWEAK up-regulated genes. Results: TWEAK increased the number of VSMCs in S phase and the total number of proliferative cells. Conclusions: Our data define a major role of TWEAK/Fn14 in the control of VSMCs proliferation and migration during neointimal hyperplasia after wire injury in mice, and identify TWEAK/Fn14 as a potential target for treating restenosis after angioplasty. provide a framework for comparative investigations of expression profiles. Our results show that NGS offers a comprehensive and more accurate quantitative and qualitative evaluation of mRNA content within a cell or tissue. We conclude that RNA-seq based transcriptome characterization would expedite genetic network analyses and permit the dissection of complex biologic functions. VSMC mRNA profiles 3-7 pasage wild type (WT) cells treated with vehicle or recombinant TW (100 ng/mL) were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina TruSeq Stranded Total RNA library prep.