Fig. 2

Analysis of aberrantly expressed retinoic acid-responsible genes in AVM nidus. a The heat map representing retinoic acid response genes from the RNA sequencing analysis that are differentially expressed in the cerebral AVM nidus. The genes that are directly or indirectly associated with vascular development are marked with an asterisk, and the list of marked genes are provided in the expanded version. b Validation of selected retinoic acid response genes such as COUP-TFII, GGTP, THSP-1, GLUT1, and EGR in AVM by qRT-PCR analysis and the expression of these genes are represented by fold change calculated from 10 different AVM nidus samples and 10 number of control tissues (*P < 0.05). The GAPDH was used as the endogenous control for normalization. c The qRT-PCR analysis for ALDH1A2 in AVM and control samples. The fold change in the gene expression of ALDH1A2 in AVM tissues was compared to that of control tissues, and the endothelial cells isolated from AVM (AVMEC) were compared to endothelial cells isolated from control tissues. Analysis was carried out with 10 AVM and 10 control tissues, and endothelial cells were isolated from 5 AVM samples and 5 control samples. The GAPDH was used as endogenous control for normalization (*P < 0.05). d The Western blot analysis of ALDH1A2 protein for the AVM tissues and control tissues. The bottom immunoblot represents the GAPDH for loading control, probed on the same blot used for ALDH1A2 protein. e The densitometry analysis of ALDH1A2 protein and the relative intensity in AVM tissue compared to control tissues. The ALDH1A2 expression is significantly increased in AVM tissues compared to control tissues (*P < 0.05). The GAPDH is the loading control. AVM (n = 11) and control (n = 7)