Fig. 5.

Neutrophil microparticles modify endothelial cell gene expression profile. HUVEC were incubated with vehicle, FlP or ImP microparticles (∼8 × 10⁵) for 6 h at 37 °C. After cell harvest and RNA extraction, gene expression profile was assessed using Illumina HT12v4 microarrays. A, Venn diagram showing the number of significantly (p < 0.05) regulated genes in the ImP and FlP microparticles treated versus vehicle cells (PBS). Selected genes are shown. B, Heatmap generated with the individual replicates showing intersample similarity. C, Real time-PCR validation of 15 distinct genes identified in the microarray analysis, showing very high correlation between the two techniques. Results are cumulative from three separate experiments with distinct microparticle and HUVEC preparations. (D, E) Functional analysis showing the top 15 pathways associated with ImP and FlP microparticles treated HUVEC respectively.