Dri Eirini, Lampas Evangelos, Lazaros George, Lazarou Emilia, Theofilis Panagiotis, Tsioufis Costas, Tousoulis Dimitris
1st Department of Cardiology, Hippokration General Hospital, Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Vas. Sofias 114, 11528 Athens, Greece.
Department of Cardiology, Konstantopouleio General Hospital, 14233 Athens, Greece.
Life (Basel). 2023 Jun 20;13(6):1420. doi: 10.3390/life13061420.
Endothelial dysfunction (ED) is characterized by imbalanced vasodilation and vasoconstriction, elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS), and inflammatory factors, as well as deficiency of nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. It has been reported that the maintenance of endothelial cell integrity serves a significant role in human health and disease due to the involvement of the endothelium in several processes, such as regulation of vascular tone, regulation of hemostasis and thrombosis, cell adhesion, smooth muscle cell proliferation, and vascular inflammation. Inflammatory modulators/biomarkers, such as IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12, IL-15, IL-18, and tumor necrosis factor α, or alternative anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, and adhesion molecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1), involved in atherosclerosis progression have been shown to predict cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, several signaling pathways, such as NLRP3 inflammasome, that are associated with the inflammatory response and the disrupted H2S bioavailability are postulated to be new indicators for endothelial cell inflammation and its associated endothelial dysfunction. In this review, we summarize the knowledge of a plethora of reviews, research articles, and clinical trials concerning the key inflammatory modulators and signaling pathways in atherosclerosis due to endothelial dysfunction.
内皮功能障碍（ED）的特征是血管舒张和收缩失衡、活性氧（ROS）及炎症因子水平升高，以及一氧化氮（NO）生物利用度不足。据报道，由于内皮细胞参与多种生理过程，如血管张力调节、止血与血栓形成调节、细胞黏附、平滑肌细胞增殖以及血管炎症，因此维持内皮细胞完整性对人类健康和疾病具有重要作用。炎症调节因子/生物标志物，如白细胞介素-1α（IL-1α）、白细胞介素-1β（IL-1β）、白细胞介素-6（IL-6）、白细胞介素-12（IL-12）、白细胞介素-15（IL-15）、白细胞介素-18（IL-18）和肿瘤坏死因子α，或替代性抗炎细胞因子白细胞介素-10，以及参与动脉粥样硬化进展的黏附分子（细胞间黏附分子-1，ICAM-1；血管细胞黏附分子-1，VCAM-1），已被证明可预测心血管疾病。此外，一些与炎症反应相关的信号通路，如NLRP3炎性小体，以及H2S生物利用度受损，被认为是内皮细胞炎症及其相关内皮功能障碍的新指标。在本综述中，我们总结了大量关于内皮功能障碍导致动脉粥样硬化中关键炎症调节因子和信号通路的综述、研究文章及临床试验的相关知识。
