Abstract
Coronary arteries are the most disease prone arteries in the circulation and are characterized
by unique hemodynamic features, wherein wall shear stress (WSS) induced by blood flow
and circumferential strain (CS) driven by pressure are highly out-of-phase temporally
(asynchronous hemodynamics). To investigate whether there is a correlation between
asynchronous hemodynamics and pathology in vivo, we examined endothelial cell (EC) gene expression and nuclear morphology in two
distinct hemodynamic regions of male New Zealand rabbits: coronary arteries (left
anterior descending artery cLAD), and aorta (aortic arch inner curvature, outer curvature,
and straight descending aorta).
En face imaging showed strong similarities in EC nuclear length:width ratio and angle
of orientation in the cLAD and aorta. Real-time RT-PCR, however, showed that coronary
arteries had significantly reduced (>5-fold) eNOS mRNA levels compared to all aortic
regions, while ET-1 showed an opposite trend (∼2.5-fold). Coronary arteries with characteristic
asynchronous hemodynamics displayed pro-atherogenic eNOS and ET-1 gene expression
profiles while the EC nuclei morphology did not differ from non-atherogenic regions
in the aorta. This study demonstrates a correlation between asynchronous hemodynamics
and pro-atherogenic gene expression patterns in vivo that is induced by hemodynamics inherent to the circulation.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 28, 2006
Accepted:
May 22,
2006
Received in revised form:
May 2,
2006
Received:
December 1,
2005
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
