Reverse Remodelling of the Lung Vasculature after Hypoxia

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a life-threatening disease, characterized by excessive pulmonary vascular remodeling, leading to elevated pulmonary arterial pressure and right heart hypertrophy. PH is caused, among other factors, by chronic hypoxia, leading to hyper-proliferation of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMC) and apoptosis-resistant pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVEC). Upon re-exposure to normoxia, chronic hypoxia-induced PH in mice is reversible. In this study, we aim to identify novel candidate genes involved in pulmonary vascular remodeling specifically in the pulmonary vasculature. C57BL/6J mice were exposed to normoxia, chronic hypoxia, or chronic hypoxia with subsequent re-exposure to normoxia for different time points. Lung vasculature was extracted using laser-microdissection and subjected to microarray analysis. In total, vessels from lungs of 76 animals (23 controls – hypoxia, and 8-12 per time point) were analyzed by dual-color hybridizations in a balanced dye-swap design.