Chronic inflammatory activation of arterial endothelial cells in mice under normal lipoprotein/cholesterol levels and on normal diet.

Inflammatory activation of endothelial cells is considered to be the first step in the development of atherosclerosis. Here, we determined changes of aortic gene expression after chronic inflammatory activation of arterial endothelial cells in genetically modified mice. We established a conditional transgenic mouse model, expressing a tamoxifen-inducible, constitutively active form of IKK2 exclusively in arterial endothelial cells (caIKK2EC mice) using BMX-CreERT2 mice in comparison to Cre-negative littermate controls. Ad libitum-fed male and female mice were used in this study at ∼6-8 weeks of age. mRNA profiles of whole aortas were generated by deep sequencing, using Illumina HiSeq3000/4000 instrument.