Viola Manuela, Karousou Evgenia, D'Angelo Maria Luisa, Moretto Paola, Caon Ilaria, Luca Giancarlo De, Passi Alberto, Vigetti Davide
Dipartimento di Scienze Chirurgiche e Morfologiche, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, via J. H. Dunant 5, 21100 Varese, Italy.
Curr Med Chem. 2016;23(26):2958-2971. doi: 10.2174/0929867323666160607104602.
Atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the blood vessel wall, is the most common cause of cardiovascular pathologies. Hyaluronan, the major polysaccharide involved in this process, plays a pivotal role acting as a modulator of all inflammatory stages, affecting the behavior of both endothelial and smooth muscle cells.
The inflammatory condition is the main reason of the increased deposition of extracellular matrix, that in turn, traps lipoproteins and inflammatory/growth factors from the circulation within the vessel wall and thicken the arterial wall. Therefore, this chronic condition that continuously affects the arterial walls in a specific area causes a severe remodeling of the tissue architecture and a drastic change in the resident cell behavior.
Because of the great complexity of the extracellular matrix in the arterial wall, we investigate the modification in the different layers of the vessels with a particular attention to hyaluronan and proteoglycans and to the events that affects their normal turnover.
Hyaluronan, the major polysaccharide involved in this process, plays a pivotal role acting as a modulator of all inflammatory stages, affecting the behavior of both endothelial and smooth muscle cells. Moreover, glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans had been shown to change during the lesion progression, and to possess the chemical features essential for lipid retention, immune system activation, smooth cells proliferation and macrophages recruitment.
The ECM characteristics should be investigated in order to understand their prevention potentials as well as their negative impact on the onset of the disease.
动脉粥样硬化是一种血管壁的慢性炎症性疾病，是心血管疾病最常见的病因。透明质酸是参与这一过程的主要多糖，在所有炎症阶段作为调节剂发挥关键作用，影响内皮细胞和平滑肌细胞的行为。
炎症状态是细胞外基质沉积增加的主要原因，细胞外基质反过来会捕获循环中的脂蛋白以及炎症/生长因子，使其滞留在血管壁内，导致动脉壁增厚。因此，这种在特定区域持续影响动脉壁的慢性疾病会导致组织结构的严重重塑以及驻留细胞行为的剧烈改变。
由于动脉壁细胞外基质极其复杂，我们研究血管不同层的变化，特别关注透明质酸和蛋白聚糖以及影响它们正常周转的事件。
透明质酸是参与这一过程的主要多糖，在所有炎症阶段作为调节剂发挥关键作用，影响内皮细胞和平滑肌细胞的行为。此外，糖胺聚糖和蛋白聚糖在病变进展过程中会发生变化，并具有脂质潴留、免疫系统激活、平滑肌细胞增殖和巨噬细胞募集所必需的化学特征。
应该研究细胞外基质的特征，以了解它们的预防潜力以及对疾病发生的负面影响。
