Journal: Cardiovascular research
Article Title: Disturbed flow induces reprogramming of endothelial cells to immune-like and foam cells under hypercholesterolaemia during atherogenesis
doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvaf233
Figure Lengend Snippet: Lineage tracing study on EC-Confetti mice validates FIRE (endothelial inflammation, EndMT, EndIT, and EndFT) under d-flow and hypercholesterolaemia at 4 weeks post-PCL. EC-Confetti mice treated with d-flow and hypercholesterolaemia at 4 weeks post-PCL ( N = 6 male and 15 female) were imaged macroscopically ( A ) and LCAs/RCAs were longitudinally sectioned, stained, imaged by fluorescence microscopy ( B–R ), and quantified ( S – V ). ( A ) shows a representative gross image of LCA, RCA, and aortic arch. ( B – R ). LCAs and RCAs were immunostained with markers of endothelial inflammation (Vcam1 and Icam1, B–D ); EndMT (Acta2, Snai1, and Cnn1, E – H ); EndIT (Cd68, C1qa, C1qb, and Lyz2, I – M ); and EndFT (Spp1, Lgals3, Trem2, and BODIPY, N – R ). ( B ), ( E ), ( I ), and ( N ) show merged images of confetti and FIRE markers at low magnification (10×), while the rest show 40× images. Confetti signals show eGFP (green), YFP (green), and RFP (red). All FIRE markers are shown in white except for green BODIPY ( R ). White arrows indicate confetti + ECs co-expressing the FIRE markers. ( S – V ) Percent confetti + ECs co-expressing each FIRE marker was quantified by a combined Matlab and ImageJ analysis. Confetti + ECs expressing markers of inflammation (Icam1 and Vcam1, S ); EndMT (Acta2, Cnn1, and Snai1, T ); EndIT (C1qa, C1qb, Lyz2, and Cd68, U ); and EndFT (Lgals3, Trem2, and Spp1, V ). Shown are mean ± SEM, each dot (male is black, female is red) represents % of confetti + ECs co-expressing FIRE markers in each longitudinal section used for quantification ( N = 10–13 longitudinal sections for RCA; N = 11–24 longitudinal sections for LCA). P values were calculated by two-tailed unpaired Student’s t -test with or without Welch’s correction for normal data and two-tailed unpaired Mann–Whitney U test for non-normal data.
Article Snippet: Primary human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs; Cell Applications #304–05a) were cultured in complete medium composed of MCDB 131 (Corning, Corning, NY, #15–100-CV) supplemented with 10% FBS (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, #S11550), 1% L-glutamine (Gibco, Billings, MT, #25030–081), 1% penicillin-streptomycin (Gibco, Billings, MT, #15140–122), 1% endothelial cell growth supplement (ECGS; bovine brain extract), 50 μg/mL L-ascorbic acid (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, #A5960), 1 μg/mL hydrocortisone (Sigma–Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, #H088), 10 ng/mL EGF (STEMCELL Technologies, Vancouver, Canada, #78006), 2 ng/mL FGF (ProSpec, Mount Vernon, NY, #CYT-218-b), 2 ng/mL IGF-1 (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, #291-G1), and 1 ng/mL VEGF (BioLegend, San Diego, CA, #583706).
Techniques: Staining, Fluorescence, Microscopy, Expressing, Marker, Two Tailed Test, MANN-WHITNEY