Figure 1. Loss of c-Kit function accounts for significant gene expression differences between c-Kit deficient and wild type smooth muscle cells (SMC).

(A) Venn diagram indicating the numbers of differentially up-regulated genes in primary SMC isolated from c-Kit deficient (blue; Kit^W∕W−v) and littermate control mice (red; Kit^+∕+) as determined by microarray analysis. The group of genes in the interception (black area) did not show statistically significant differences by t-test between the two strains (n = 3 per group). (B) Heat map of differentially expressed genes in primary SMC from c-Kit deficient and littermate control mice. (C) Expression of NF-κB related genes in c-Kit deficient vs. control SMC as determined by real-time PCR. Values are shown as fold change over expression in Kit^+∕+ cells; ^∗p < 0.05 and ^∗∗p < 0.01 using a two-tailed t-test assuming unequal variance, n = 3 per group.