Age-related vascular gene expression profiling in mice

• Studies on age-dependent vascular gene expression in C57BL/6 mice are lacking.
• Aged mice display increased vascular stiffness and systolic hypertension.
• Alterations in gene expression associated with vascular aging are shown.
• Insight is given into pathways related to non-atherosclerotic vascular aging.
• Emphasis is on TGF-β signaling, renin-angiotensin and detoxification system.

Increasing age involves a number of detrimental changes in the cardiovascular system and particularly on the large arteries. It deteriorates vascular integrity and leads to increased vascular stiffness entailing hypertension with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The consequences of continuous oxidative stress and damages to biomolecules include altered gene expression, genomic instability, mutations, loss of cell division and cellular responses to increased stress. Many studies have been performed in aged C57BL/6 mice; however, analyses of the age-related changes that occur at a gene expression level and transcriptional profile in vascular tissue have not been elucidated in depth. To determine the changes of the vascular transcriptome, we conducted gene expression microarray experiments on aortas of adult and old mice, in which age-related vascular dysfunction was confirmed by increased stiffness and associated systolic hypertension. Our results highlight differentially expressed genes overrepresented in Gene Ontology categories. Molecular interaction and reaction pathways involved in vascular functions and disease, within the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) pathway, the renin-angiotensin system and the detoxification systems are displayed. Our results provide insight to an altered gene expression profile related to age, thus offering useful clues to counteract or prevent vascular aging and its detrimental consequences.