Transcriptional analysis of the impact of BMPR2 loss and BMP9 treatment on pulmonary artery endothelial cells

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease of the pulmonary endothelium associated with mutations in BMPR2, the gene encoding the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type II receptor (BMPR-II). Loss of BMPR-II in the pulmonary endothelium has been shown to alter the functional response of the endothelium to BMP9 treatment from growth suppression in healthy cells, to hyperproliferation with the loss of BMPR-II. To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenotypic switch, we performed RNA sequencing on total RNA isolated from primary human pulmonary artery endothelial cells treated with or without BMP9 following BMPR2 knockdown or control.