The study was performed in liver-endothelial cells (LECs) isolated from adult male Wistar rats, undergoing a cirrhosis induction protocol as described previously by our group, and LECs isolated from control Wistar rats, according to the criteria of the Investigation and Ethics Committee of the Hospital Clínic Universitari (Spain).The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in the gene expression pattern between LECs from control and cirrhotic rats. Methods: LECs were isolated from livers by collagenase perfusion, isopycnic centrifugation and incubation of cells with magnetic beads coated with specific antibodies.Total RNA was extracted from LECs with Trizol reagent (Life Technologies, Rockville, MD) after the cell-isolation step described above. RNA quality and concentration were confirmed using the Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA). cRNA samples were hybridized to the Rat Expression 230A oligonucleotide microarray (Affymetrix). Microarray samples preparation and processing procedures where performed at the IDIBAPS Genomic Unit (Hospital Clinic Universitari, Barcelona) following the protocol as described in the Affymetrix GeneChip Expression Analysis Manual (Affymetrix, Inc, Santa Clara, CA).
