Identification of gene modulating vascular inflammation using chromosome 2 fragment substitutions and RNA sequencing [RNA-Seq]

Chromosome 2 introgression from normotensive Brown Norway (BN) rats into hypertensive Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) background (consomic S2B) reduced blood pressure (BP) and vascular inflammation under normal salt diet (NSD). We hypothesized that BN chromosome 2 contains anti-inflammatory genes that could reduce BP elevation and vascular inflammation in rats fed NSD and high salt diet (HSD). We used chromosome 2 fragment substitutions to map chromosome 2 portion associated with vascular inflammation changes and next generation sequencing (NGS) to profile messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in thoracic descending aorta of SS and congenic rats fed NSD or HSD.