An integrative systems approach identifies novel candidates in Marfan syndrome-related pathophysiology.

Raghu Bhushan
Lukas Altinbas
Marten Jäger
Marcin Zaradzki
Daniel Lehmann
Bernd Timmermann
Nicholas P Clayton
Yunxiang Zhu
Klaus Kallenbach
Georgios Kararigas
Peter N Robinson, The Jackson Laboratory

Abstract

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder caused by mutations in the FBN1 gene. Although many peripheral tissues are affected, aortic complications, such as dilation, dissection and rupture, are the leading causes of MFS-related mortality. Aberrant TGF-beta signalling plays a major role in the pathophysiology of MFS. However, the contributing mechanisms are still poorly understood. Here, we aimed at identifying novel aorta-specific pathways involved in the pathophysiology of MFS. For this purpose, we employed the Fbn1 under-expressing mgR/mgR mouse model of MFS. We performed RNA-sequencing of aortic tissues of 9-week-old mgR/mgR mice compared with wild-type (WT) mice. With a false discovery rate