Rapacz familial hypercholesterolemic (RFH) swine are a well-established model of human FH, a highly prevalent hereditary disease associated with increased risk of coronary artery disease and calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD). However, while these animals have been used extensively for the study of atherosclerosis, the heart valves from RFH swine have not previously been examined. We report the analysis of valvular interstitial cell gene expression in adult (two year old) and juvenile (three months old) RFH and WT swine by microarray analysis via the Affymetrix Porcine Genome Array (GEO #: GSE53997). Principal component and hierarchical clustering analysis revealed grouping and almost no variability between the RFH juvenile and WT juvenile groups. Additionally, only 21 genes were found differentially expressed between these two experimental groups whereas over 900 genes were differentially expressed when comparing either RFH or WT juvenile swine to RFH adults.
Keywords: familial hypercholesterolemia; microarray; swine; valve disease.