Expression data of RNA isolated from C57/BL6 mouse aortic endothelial cells (MAECs)

Our goal is to study the contribution of endothelial, smooth muscle, and macrophage gene expression to early atherosclerosis using vessels from healthy, pre-lesioned, and lesioned mice. To accomplish this, we developed a method to isolate endothelial cells directly from the aorta and quantitate transcripts in RNA isolated from these cells. We performed expression array analysis on RNA isolated directly from the vascular cells of individual control, pre-lesioned, and atherosclerotic mouse aortas. Array expression analysis was not performed on smooth muscle cells or macrophages. RNA from MAEC of pre-lesioned hyperlipidemic and normal-lipidemic mice was isolated, amplified, and arrayed. Mouse aortas were also treated in either media (DMEM) or media containing either LPS, oxLDL, or oxPAPC for 4 hours prior to RNA isolation and amplification. Only samples with a RIN of 7.0 or greater were used for analysis.