Blood flow and vascular shear stress patterns play a significant role in inducing and modulating physiological responses of endothelial cells (ECs). Pulsatile shear (PS) is associated with an atheroprotective endothelial phenotype, while oscillatory shear (OS) is associated with an atheroprone endothelial phenotype. Although mechanisms of endothelial shear response have been extensively studied, most studies focus on characterization of single molecular pathways, mainly at fixed time points after stress application. Here, we carried out a longitudinal time-series study to measure the transcriptome after the application of PS and OS. We performed systems analyses of transcriptional data of cultured human vascular ECs to elucidate the dynamics of endothelial responses in several functional pathways such as cell cycle, oxidative stress, and inflammation. By combining the temporal data on differentially expressed transcription factors and their targets with existing knowledge on relevant functional pathways, we infer the causal relationships between disparate endothelial functions through common transcriptional regulation mechanisms. Our study presents a comprehensive temporally longitudinal experimental study and mechanistic model of shear stress response. By comparing the relative endothelial expressions of genes between OS and PS, we provide insights and an integrated perspective into EC function in response to differential shear. This study has significant implications for the pathogenesis of vascular diseases.

The optimal expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), the hallmark of endothelial homeostasis, is vital to vascular function. Dynamically regulated by various stimuli, eNOS expression is modulated at transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and post-translational levels. However, epigenetic modulations of eNOS, particularly through long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and chromatin remodeling, remain to be explored. Here we identify an enhancer-associated lncRNA that enhances eNOS expression (LEENE). Combining RNA-sequencing and chromatin conformation capture methods, we demonstrate that LEENE is co-regulated with eNOS and that its enhancer resides in proximity to eNOS promoter in endothelial cells (ECs). Gain- and Loss-of-function of LEENE differentially regulate eNOS expression and EC function. Mechanistically, LEENE facilitates the recruitment of RNA Pol II to the eNOS promoter to enhance eNOS nascent RNA transcription. Our findings unravel a new layer in eNOS regulation and provide novel insights into cardiovascular regulation involving endothelial function.

The two main blood flow patterns, namely, pulsatile shear (PS) prevalent in straight segments of arteries and oscillatory shear (OS) observed at branch points, are associated with atheroprotective (healthy) and atheroprone (unhealthy) vascular phenotypes, respectively. The effects of blood flow-induced shear stress on endothelial cells (ECs) and vascular health have generally been studied using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). While there are a few studies comparing the differential roles of PS and OS across different types of ECs at a single time point, there is a paucity of studies comparing the temporal responses between different EC types. In the current study, we measured OS and PS transcriptomic responses in human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) over 24 h and compared these temporal responses of HAECs with our previous findings on HUVECs. The measurements were made at 1, 4, and 24 h in order to capture the responses at early, mid, and late time points after shearing. The results indicate that the responses of HAECs and HUVECs are qualitatively similar for endothelial function-relevant genes and several important pathways with a few exceptions, thus demonstrating that HUVECs can be used as a model to investigate the effects of shear on arterial ECs, with consideration of the differences. Our findings show that HAECs exhibit an earlier response or faster kinetics as compared to HUVECs. The comparative analysis of HAECs and HUVECs presented here offers insights into the mechanisms of common and disparate shear stress responses across these two major endothelial cell types.

Isolating pure microbial cultures and cultivating them in the laboratory on defined media is used to more fully characterize the metabolism and physiology of organisms. However, identifying an appropriate growth medium for a novel isolate remains a challenging task. Even organisms with sequenced and annotated genomes can be difficult to grow, despite our ability to build genome-scale metabolic networks that connect genomic data with metabolic function. The scientific literature is scattered with information about defined growth media used successfully for cultivating a wide variety of organisms, but to date there exists no centralized repository to inform efforts to cultivate less characterized organisms by bridging the gap between genomic data and compound composition for growth media. Here we present MediaDB, a manually curated database of defined media that have been used for cultivating organisms with sequenced genomes, with an emphasis on organisms with metabolic network models. The database is accessible online, can be queried by keyword searches or downloaded in its entirety, and can generate exportable individual media formulation files. The data assembled in MediaDB facilitate comparative studies of organism growth media, serve as a starting point for formulating novel growth media, and contribute to formulating media for in silico investigation of metabolic networks. MediaDB is freely available for public use at https://mediadb.systemsbiology.net.

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