Abstract TP281: Transcriptome Analysis of the Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells During and After Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation Stress as a Tool to Identify Novel Targets
Background: The blood-brain barrier (BBB) constitutes an important component of the neurovascular unit (NVU) by providing a physical and a chemical barrier critical for the brain homeostasis. The disruption of the BBB during cerebral ischemia constitutes a key event of the disease, resulting in its opening and ultimately the formation of cerebral edema. Therefore, targeting such BBB disruption by restoring the barrier function could mitigate such insult. In this study, we investigated change in gene expression profile of the human BBB in vitro using an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) based model. Methods: BMECs derived from two human iPSC lines (CTR90F and CTR65M) were exposed to acute OGD stress (1% O2, no glucose) for 6h, followed by reoxygenation (21% O2, 1g/L glucose) for 18h and compared to control (21% O2, 1g/L glucose, 24h) Total RNA was extracted for cDNA microarray analysis to the University of Texas Southwestern Genomic Core Facility using a ClariomD® chip. Fold-change >2 was considered statistically significant (P<0.05). Results: OGD/reoxygenation resulted in almost 3700 genes differentially expressed, including over 600 coding genes. Most of such differential expression occurred during the OGD phase. Reoxygenation yielded to quasi-similar expression profile than controls. Several original pathways have been identified and include nuclear receptors, PI3K/Akt signaling pathways, microRNAs, and adhesion signaling pathways. Conclusions: Our preliminary findings suggest that our iPSC-derived model of the BBB based on BMECs showed an overlap of several genes commonly identified as hypoxic/ischemic responsive genes, but also highlighted novel signaling pathways that have little or no literature on their function at the BBB. We are currently refining our list of genes and focusing our attention on genes that have shown the highest enrichment or depletion.