National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Department of Dermatology, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 23;7(1):13831. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-14365-1.
Chronic inflammation is a critical component of atherogenesis, however, reliable human translational models aimed at characterizing these mechanisms are lacking. Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease associated with increased susceptibility to atherosclerosis, provides a clinical human model that can be utilized to investigate the links between chronic inflammation and atherosclerosis development. We sought to investigate key biological processes in psoriasis skin and human vascular tissue to identify biological components that may promote atherosclerosis in chronic inflammatory conditions. Using a bioinformatics approach of human skin and vascular tissue, we determined IFN-γ and TNF-α are the dominant pro-inflammatory signals linking atherosclerosis and psoriasis. We then stimulated primary aortic endothelial cells and ex-vivo atherosclerotic tissue with IFN-γ and TNF-α and found they synergistically increased monocyte and T-cell chemoattractants, expression of adhesion molecules on the endothelial cell surface, and decreased endothelial barrier integrity in vitro, therefore increasing permeability. Our data provide strong evidence of synergism between IFN-γ and TNF- α in inflammatory atherogenesis and provide rationale for dual cytokine antagonism in future studies.
慢性炎症是动脉粥样硬化形成的一个关键组成部分,然而,缺乏旨在描述这些机制的可靠的人类转化模型。银屑病是一种与动脉粥样硬化易感性增加相关的慢性炎症性皮肤病,为研究慢性炎症与动脉粥样硬化发展之间的联系提供了一个可利用的临床人类模型。我们试图研究银屑病皮肤和人类血管组织中的关键生物学过程,以确定在慢性炎症状态下可能促进动脉粥样硬化的生物学成分。我们使用人类皮肤和血管组织的生物信息学方法,确定 IFN-γ 和 TNF-α 是连接动脉粥样硬化和银屑病的主要促炎信号。然后,我们用 IFN-γ 和 TNF-α 刺激原代主动脉内皮细胞和离体动脉粥样硬化组织,发现它们协同增加单核细胞和 T 细胞趋化因子,增加内皮细胞表面粘附分子的表达,并在体外降低内皮细胞屏障完整性,从而增加通透性。我们的数据为 IFN-γ 和 TNF-α 在炎症性动脉粥样硬化形成中的协同作用提供了强有力的证据,并为未来的研究提供了双重细胞因子拮抗的依据。