Table 1

Sequences of primers for gene amplification"

Table 2

Sequences of primers for amplifying differentially expressed genes associated with vascular aging"

Figure 1.

Blood pressure and heart ratio of the mice treated with angiotensin Ⅱ (Ang Ⅱ) vs. saline for 28 days. A. systolic blood pressure; B. mean blood pressure; C. diastolic blood pressure; D. heart ratio. ns: no significance. ****P<0.0001, n=8 per group."

Figure 2.

Ang Ⅱ can increase elastin degradation grade and the intima and media thickness of the mice aorta. Representative images of Elastin van Gieson staining of the aorta from the saline- and Ang Ⅱ-induced mice. B. Semi-quantitative analysis of elastin degradation. C. HE staining of aortic structure in the indicated groups. D. Quantitative analysis of the intima and media thickness. Bars: (left) 400 µm, (right) 200 µm, n=4. All values are shown as means±SD, *P<0.05."

Figure 3.

AngⅡ can induce inflammatory and fibrotic gene expressions. The mRNA expression levels of inflammatory factors IL-6, VCAM-1, MCP1 and fibrotic factors collagenⅠ(D), collagen Ⅲ, fibronectin in the aortic tissues were tested by qRT-PCR. Data are expressed as means±SD. Student’s t-tests were performed to compare the difference in mRNA expression between the two groups: *P<0.05, **P<0.01."

Figure 4.

Differential analysis of gene expression. A. Plot of the 1st and 2nd principal component of sample variations by using principal component analysis. Red dots represent AngⅡinduced samples and green dots denote saline treated samples. B. Volcano plot of gene expression differences between the two groups, up- (red) or down-regulated genes (green) upon AngⅡtreatment. C. Heat map of 773 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the Ang Ⅱ-induced samples and controls. X axis represents samples and Y axis represents genes."

Figure 5.

Functional analysis and pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs. A. The top 30 Gene Ontology terms for DEGs are shown in three categories: the 10 terms at the bottom of the list represent molecular function, the medium 10 represent cellular component and the top 10 represent biological process. B. The top 20 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways for DEGs. C. KEGG pathway classification of the Ang Ⅱvs. Saline groups. Aging pathway is enriched."

Figure 6.

Validation of the DEGs associated with vascular aging by using quantitative real-time PCR. Data are expressed as means±SD. Student’s t-tests were used in comparison: **P<0.01."