Shear stress regulates gene expression in vascular endothelial cells in response to tumor necrosis factor-α: A study of the transcription profile with complementary DNA microarray

We investigate the role of shear stress in regulating the gene expression in endothelial cells (ECs) in response to tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). ECs were kept in static condition or pre-exposed to a high level (HSS, 20 dynes/cm²) or a low level of shear stress (LSS, 0.5 dynes/cm²) for 24 h, and TNF-α was added under static condition for 4 h. In static ECs, DNA microarray showed that TNF-α caused a significant increase in expression of 102 genes and a significant decrease in expression of 12 genes. Pre-shearing of ECs decreased the TNF-α- responsiveness of many pro-inflammatory, pro-coagulant, proliferative, and pro-apoptotic genes, whereas it increased the responsiveness of some antioxidant, anti-coagulant, and anti-apoptotic genes. LSS showed less regulatory effects than HSS on EC gene expression in response to TNF-α. The microarray data were confirmed by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction for 64 selected genes. Pre-shearing of ECs at HSS significantly inhibited the TNF-α-induced p65 and p50 mRNA expressions and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB)-DNA binding activity. Inhibition of NF-κB activity with the p65-antisense or lactacystin under static condition blocked the expression of most of the genes that are TNF-α-inducible and shear stress-down-regulated. Our findings suggest that laminar shear stress serves protective functions against atherogenesis.