Microvascular endothelial heterogeneity. Mus musculus

The goal of this study was to gain insight into the molecular heterogeneity of capillary endothelial cells derived from different organs by microarray profiling of freshly isolated cells and identify transcription factors that may determine the specific gene expression profile of endothelial cells from different tissues. The study focused on heart endothelial cells and presents a validated signature of 31 genes that are highly enriched in heart endothelial cells. Within this signature 5 transcription factors were identified and the optimal combination of these transcription factors was determined for specification of the heart endothelial fingerprint. Overall design: From three tissue types (mouse brain, heart and liver), we collected five freshly isolated endothelial cell samples each. For each brain sample we pooled RNA from 6 mice. For each heart sample we pooled RNA from 4 mice. For each liver sample we pooled RNA from 2 mice. The three endothelial subtypes were then compared. For each subtype, specific gene profiles were defined by determining the genes that were highly enriched versus the other two endothelial subtypes.