Gene expression profiling of hypoxic response in different models of senescent endothelial cells

Endothelial cells senescence is a physiological process affecting vascular integrity. It can contribute to heart and arterial stiffening and remodeling, impaired angiogenesis, defective vascular repair, and with an increasing prevalence of atherosclerosis. Drugs used as antineoplastic therapies, targeting tumor as well as endothelial cells, can also trigger endothelial cells senescence. We demonstrated that a short pulse of axitinib, a specific inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors, induces cell senescence of endothelial cells. Here, we performed a high-throughput gene expression analysis to characterize the response of proliferating versus senescent endothelial cells to hypoxia, the main trigger of neo-angiogenetic phenomena in tumors. We compared the response to hypoxia of replicative senescent cells, with that of axitinib or of DNA damage-induced senescence. Overall, we enlightened common and specific responses to different senescence inducers and changes in the Senescent Associated Secretory Phenotype.