Gene Ontology Gene Function Gene Symbols (Fold-change and p-value) Differentiation notch 3, may be involved in cardiomyocyte differentiation, presenilin enhancer 2 homolog, required for the Notch signaling pathway Notch3 (3.11, 0.0345), Psenen (-1.81, 0.0170) Coenzyme Q biosynthesis cytochrome c oxidase, coenzyme, required for Ubiquinone (coenzyme Q) biosynthesis, coenzyme Cox18 (-2.04, 0.0036), Coq3 (-1.77, 0.0129), Coq7 (-1.74, 0.0063), Coq2* (-1.60, 0.057), Coq6 (-1.67, 0.026), Coq10a (-1.55, 0.013) ECM proteolysis matrix metallopeptidase 12, may have a role in glomerular injury, Disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain 12, ADAMTS-like 2 MMP12 (3.95, 0.0443), Adam12 (2.39, 0.0083), Adamtsl2 (1.66, 0.0073) Cell migration hyaluronan synthase has1 (2.03, 0.0337) Cell growth and proliferation latent transforming growth factor beta binding protein 2, transforming growth factor b, early growth response 1, transcription, cyclin-dependent kinase 1, cyclin L2, EGF-like-domain, NDRG family member 3, negative regulation of cell growth Ltbp2 (3.61, 0.001), TGFb1 (1.68, 0.0195), Egr1 (2.57, 0.0050), CDC2 (1.65, 0.0207), Ccnl2 (2.03, 0.0085), Egfl6 (-1.87, 0.0327), Ndrg3 (-1.80, 0.0091) Ca-binding transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily V, member 2, two pore segment channel 1, Ca- channel activity TRPV2 (1.66, 0.0035), Tpcn2 (1.56, 0.0341) Transcription factors nuclear transcription factor, nuclear receptor corepressor 2, transcriptional silencing, runt-related transcription factor Nfxl1 (1.69, 0.0159), Ncor2 (1.51, 0.0209), Runx1 (2.13, 0.0314) Proteolysis mast cell protease 1, mast cell protease 10, mast cell protease 8 Mcpt1 (-2.20, 0.0495), Mcp10 (-1.87, 0.0221), Mcpt8 (-1.65, 0.0284) Phagosome maturation member RAS oncogene family Rab20 (-2.09, 0.017), Rab27a (-1.61, 0.003) Inflammation interleukin 33, interleukin 17, interleukin 10 Il33 (-1.99, 0.0412), Il17ra (1.84, 0.0125), Il10ra (1.73, 0.0203) Macromolecule metabolism Ribosome aldehyde dehydrogenase 3 family, alcohol dehydrogenase 1A Aldh3a1 (-1.61, 0.0135), Aldh3a2 (-1.53, 0.0273), Adh1 (-1.77, 0.0367) Ribosome ribosomal protein, exosome component 5, ribosome biogenesis Rpl3 (1.88, 0.0254), Exosc5 (-1.57, 0.0481)

Table 3: A list of differentially expressed genes (FC> (+1.5) or FC< (-1.5), p<0.05), revealed from STN+MI treatment versus sham according to the gene chip array (Exceptional p-values are marked in asterisk). Genes that are affiliated with KEGG pathways specific to the cardiac structure or function are presented. Only genes demonstrating best differential expression in the STN+MI group relative to sham are listed. The turquoise highlight refers to genes whose relative expression was also tested by RT PCR; the green highlight demonstrates statistical significance in real-time analysis.