The effects of Mycophenolate treatment on the transcriptomes of patients with symptomatic carotid artery stenosis

This study was conducted in order to assess the effects of the compound Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), an inhibitor of the enzyme inosine monophosphate dehydroxygenase (IMPDH) with a strong cytostatic effect on T-cells, on the phenotype of human carotid artery stenosis in humans in vivo. This was done at the transcriptome level by comparing the gene expression profiles of carotid endarterectomy samples from patients with carotid artery stenosis (>70% diameter stenosis on angiography) that were randomly assigned to treatment with MMF 1000 mg (N=9) or Placebo (N=11), respectively. MMF or placebo was given for at least 2 weeks prior to undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Patients and study personnel were blinded to study group assignments. The institutional ethics committee approved the study, and informed consent was obtained prior to enrollment. This study is registered as an International Standardised Randomised Controlled Trial, number ISRCTN84092396. The transcriptomes were determined by means of hybridizing one round amplified and biotinylated cRNA molecules, extracted from the carotid endarterectomy samples, on Sentrix Illumina Human Ref-8 version2.0 gene expression chips.