The role of macrophage VCAM-1 in atherosclerosis and inflammation

VCAM-1 is known to be expressed by endothelial cells. We showed that this is also expressed by atherosclerotic plaque macrophages. However, the merit of this adhesion molecule is now known in atherosclerosis. In this RNA sequencing experiment, we analyzed VCAM-1+ vs. - atherosclerotic plaque macrophages. Additionally, we sorted macrophages from atherosclerotic plaques of mice after mitochondrial biogenesis gene Cmpk2 silencing in macrophages in vivo. We sorted VCAM-1+ and - macrophages from atherosclerotic plaques of Apoe KO mice fed with an atherogenic diet for four months. Moreover, we collected total atherosclerotic plaque macrophages from ApoeKO mice fed with an atherogenic diet for four months and treated with control and Cmpk2 siRNA formulated in lipidoid nanoparticles for a month. For the spatial transcriptomics experiment, we performed bone marrow transplantation in Ldlr KO mice with bone marrow from WT or myeloid Vcam1-deficient mice. The mice were placed on high fat diet a week later. The aortic roots were harvested after four months, spatial RNA seq using the Slide Seq technology was employed.