Expression data of vascular smooth muscle cell in patients with suspected giant cell arteritis (GCA)

There is a remodelling process which occurs in affected vessels during GCA and vascular smooth muscle cells are key cells in this process. Thickening of vessel might be responsible for vessel occlusion. We isolated vascular smooth muscle cells from temporal artery biopsies of patients with suspected GCA and used expression chips in order to identify genes up- and down-regulated in VSMC from patients with proven GCA compared to VSMC from patients with possible GCA and to VSMC from patients with another diagnosis. Vascular smooth muscle cells were isolated at the time of temporal artery biopsy (TAB) and 3 groups of VSMC were compared according to patient's final diagnosis : (1) TAB+GCA=histology proven GCA, (2) TAB-GCA=GCA lacking histological proof and (3) GCA-control=other diagnosis than GCA.