Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is one of the most efficient procedures for patients with advanced coronary artery disease. From all the blood vessels with the potential to be used in this procedure, the internal thoracic artery (ITA) and the saphenous vein (SV) are the most commonly applied as aortocoronary conduits. Nevertheless, in order to evaluate the graft patency and efficiency effectively, basic knowledge should be constantly expanding at the molecular level as well, as the understanding of predictive factors is still limited. In this study, we have employed the expressive microarray approach, validated with Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR), to analyze the transcriptome of both venous and arterial grafts. Searching for potential molecular factors, we analyzed differentially expressed gene ontologies involved in bone development and morphogenesis, for the possibility of discovery of new markers for the evaluation of ITA and SV segment quality. Among three ontological groups of interest-"endochondral bone morphogenesis", "ossification", and "skeletal system development"-we found six genes common to all of them. BMP6, SHOX2, COL13A1, CSGALNACT1, RUNX2, and STC1 showed differential expression patterns in both analyzed vessels. STC1 and COL13A1 were upregulated in ITA samples, whereas others were upregulated in SV. With regard to the Runx2 protein function in osteogenic phenotype regulation, the RUNX2 gene seems to be of paramount importance in assessing the potential of ITA, SV, and other vessels used in the CABG procedure. Overall, the presented study provided valuable insight into the molecular background of conduit characterization, and thus indicated genes that may be the target of subsequent studies, also at the protein level. Moreover, it has been suggested that RUNX2 may be recognized as a molecular marker of osteogenic changes in human blood vessels.

Department of Anatomy Poznan University of Medical Sciences 60 781 Poznań Poland

Department of Anatomy Poznan University of Medical Sciences 60 781 Poznań Poland Department of Histology and Embryology Poznan University of Medical Sciences 60 781 Poznań Poland Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology University Hospital and Masaryk University 601 77 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Cardiac Surgery and Transplantology Poznan University of Medical Sciences 61 848 Poznań Poland

Department of Histology and Embryology Poznan University of Medical Sciences 60 781 Poznań Poland

Department of Histology and Embryology Poznan University of Medical Sciences 60 781 Poznań Poland Division of Anatomy and Histology University of Zielona Góra 65 046 Zielona Góra Poland

Division of Anatomy and Histology University of Zielona Góra 65 046 Zielona Góra Poland Division of Histology and Embryology Department of Human Morphology and Embryology Wroclaw Medical University 50 368 Wrocław Poland

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