Figure 6: Effect of endothelial Dicer deletion on arterial gene expression.

(a) Heat map of genes differentially expressed in the aortas of EC-Dicer^flox mice compared with EC-Dicer^WT mice (n=2 mice per group; P<0.05; fold change cutoff=1.2) after 12 weeks HFD feeding. (b) Quantitative RT–PCR analyses of the c-Myb, Tcf7, Lef1, Dkk2 and Sox17 expression levels in the aortas of EC-Dicer^WT and EC-Dicer^flox mice after 12 weeks HFD feeding (n=4–7 mice per group). (c,d) Significant enriched biological processes (c) and signalling pathways (d) among the genes differentially regulated in EC-Dicer^flox mice as compared with EC-Dicer^WT mice using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software. (e) Quantitative RT–PCR analyses of Klf4 mRNA expression in the aortas of EC-Dicer^WT and EC-Dicer^flox mice after 12 weeks of HFD feeding (n=4 mice per group). (f) KLF4⁺ ECs in aortic root sections of EC-Dicer^WT and EC-Dicer^flox mice identified by immunostaining of KLF4 and the endothelial marker CD31. The arrows indicate ECs with nuclear KLF4 staining. The nuclei were counterstained with 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI). Representative images are shown (n=3–4 mice per group). Scale bar, 25 μm. The data are represented as the mean±s.e.m. of the indicated number (n) of repeats. *P<0.05; **P<0.01 by Student’s t-test.