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

内皮细胞（endothelial cell）的炎症激活被认为是动脉粥样硬化（atherosclerosis）发生发展的首要步骤。本研究探究基因工程改造小鼠的动脉内皮细胞发生慢性炎症激活后，主动脉的基因表达变化情况。整体实验设计：我们借助BMX-CreERT2小鼠构建了仅在动脉内皮细胞中表达他莫昔芬（tamoxifen）诱导型组成性激活形式IKK2的条件性转基因小鼠模型（caIKK2EC小鼠），并以Cre阴性的同窝对照小鼠作为对照。本研究选用周龄约6~8周的自由摄食雌雄小鼠作为实验对象。完整主动脉的mRNA表达谱采用Illumina HiSeq3000/4000测序仪完成深度测序。