Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-806 Poznan, Poland.
Institute of Computing Science, Poznan University of Technology, 60-965 Poznan, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Nov 13;21(22):8574. doi: 10.3390/ijms21228574.
Interleukin 18 (IL-18) is a proinflammatory and proatherogenic cytokine with pleiotropic properties, which is involved in T and NK cell maturation and the synthesis of other inflammatory cytokines and cell adhesion molecules. It plays a significant role in orchestrating the cytokine cascade, accelerates atherosclerosis and influences plaque vulnerability. To investigate the influence of IL-18 cytokine on atherosclerosis development, a stochastic Petri net model was built and then analyzed. First, MCT-sets and t-clusters were generated, then knockout and simulation-based analysis was conducted. The application of systems approach that was used in this research enabled an in-depth analysis of the studied phenomenon. Our results gave us better insight into the studied phenomenon and allow revealing that activation of macrophages by the classical pathway and IL-18-MyD88 signaling axis is crucial for the modeled process.
白细胞介素 18（IL-18）是一种具有多种功能的促炎和促动脉粥样硬化细胞因子，参与 T 和 NK 细胞的成熟以及其他炎症细胞因子和细胞黏附分子的合成。它在协调细胞因子级联反应、加速动脉粥样硬化形成和影响斑块易损性方面发挥着重要作用。为了研究白细胞介素 18 细胞因子对动脉粥样硬化发展的影响，构建了一个随机 Petri 网模型并进行了分析。首先生成了 MCT-sets 和 t-clusters，然后进行了敲除和基于模拟的分析。本研究中应用的系统方法使我们能够深入分析所研究的现象。我们的结果使我们对所研究的现象有了更深入的了解，并揭示了经典途径和 IL-18-MyD88 信号轴对巨噬细胞的激活对于所建模型过程至关重要。
