Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Gene Expression Profiling Between Incracranial and Extracranial Vasculature

Background: Intracranial arteries (IA) have unique histological, pharmacological, and pathological characteristics when compared to extracranial arteris (EA). Despite its importance, little is known about the molecular characteristics of those vessels. In this study, we carried out a genome-wide characterization on expressions of mRNAs, and performed integrative analyses in conjunction with changes of the transcriptome between IA and EA vascular smooth muscle cells. Methods: mRNA expression screening was performed from same autopsied body (n=3) using Agilent Human mRNA arrays for IA (middle cerebral a.) and EA (left ant. descending a. of coronary a.) vascular smooth muscle (vSMC) layer. Total gene expression compared with intracranial vs. extracranial vSMC. Results: As compared to EA, we identified 304 mRNA that were differentially expressed in the IA vSMC (p<0.05 and fold change >2), including 224 upregulated and 80 downregulated. Through this comparison we have identified angiogenesis, cell migration, cell proliferation, neurogenesis, and inflammatory response genes whose expression is enriched in IA vSMC. This analysis has identified that RAR activation, and Caveolar-mediated endocytosis signaling cascade is specifically enriched at the IA vSMC, implicating this pathway in regulating this arterial system. Conclusions: This dataset provides a resource for understanding the different arterial regulation and disease susceptibility in IA and EA, especially atherosclerosis and diabetes.Funding: This study was supported by a grant from the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Kim HS, NRF-2016R1A2B4008316).