| 1. |
- Karlöf, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Correlation of computed tomography with carotid plaque transcriptomes associates calcification with lesion-stabilization
- 2019
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - Stockholm : ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD. - 0021-9150 .- 1879-1484. ; 288, s. 175-185
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and aims: Unstable carotid atherosclerosis causes stroke, but methods to identify patients and lesions at risk are lacking. We recently found enrichment of genes associated with calcification in carotid plaques from asymptomatic patients. Here, we hypothesized that calcification represents a stabilising feature of plaques and investigated how macro-calcification, as estimated by computed tomography (CT), correlates with gene expression profiles in lesions. Methods: Plaque calcification was measured in pre-operative CT angiographies. Plaques were sorted into high- and low-calcified, profiled with microarrays, followed by bioinformatic analyses. Immunohistochemistry and qPCR were performed to evaluate the findings in plaques and arteries with medial calcification from chronic kidney disease patients. Results: Smooth muscle cell (SMC) markers were upregulated in high-calcified plaques and calcified plaques from symptomatic patients, whereas macrophage markers were downregulated. The most enriched processes in high-calcified plaques were related to SMCs and extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, while inflammation, lipid transport and chemokine signaling were repressed. These findings were confirmed in arteries with high medial calcification. Proteoglycan 4 (PRG4) was identified as the most upregulated gene in association with plaque calcification and found in the ECM, SMA+ and CD68+/TRAP + cells. Conclusions: Macro-calcification in carotid lesions correlated with a transcriptional profile typical for stable plaques, with altered SMC phenotype and ECM composition and repressed inflammation. PRG4, previously not described in atherosclerosis, was enriched in the calcified ECM and localized to activated macrophages and smooth muscle-like cells. This study strengthens the notion that assessment of calcification may aid evaluation of plaque phenotype and stroke risk.
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| 2. |
- Abedpour Dehkordi, Adel, et al.
(författare)
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Interleukin-6 reduces paraoxonase-1 activity in a dose-dependent manner : evidence for a potential novel lipoprotein-based modulatory mechanism
- 2016
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier. - 0021-9150 .- 1879-1484. ; 252, s. E113-E114
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Objectives: The anti-oxidant/anti-inflammatory nature of HDL is mainly associated with paraoxonase-1 (PON1). Previous studies have revealed an inverse correlation between Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and PON1 expression. The current study investigates the effect of IL-6 on serum PON1 activity in vitro, given the potential structural capability of PON1 to host multiple ligands. Methods: PON1 activity was measured spectrophotometrically (234 nm) using paraoxon substrate in the presence of concentrations of IL-6 than control samples. A sequence alignment using the FASTA sequence was manually conducted to identify possible homologies between PON1 and the IL-6-binding protein. Statistical analysis was conducted using GraphPad Prism v5.0. Results: PON1 enzyme activity decreased by 15%, 26% (P<0.05) and 55% (P<0.001) in the presence of 4, 10 and 20 pg/ml of IL-6, respectively. in comparison with the controls. Student t. test was used as statistical method (p<0.05: statistically significant). There are potential homologies between PON1 active sites and know IL-6-binding residues. Conclusions: This study shows that IL-6 directly reduce the PON1 activity in a dose-dependent manner. This observation supports some studies indicating inverse correlation between PON1 and IL-6. However, as opposed to the gene-mediated approach, this study suggest that IL-6 may act directly through specific binding to PON1 (biochemical modulation). X ray crystallography can further scrutinize the present finding.
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| 3. |
- Acosta, Stefan, et al.
(författare)
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Lp-PLA2 activity and mass for prediction of incident abdominal aortic aneurysms : A prospective longitudinal cohort study
- 2017
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier BV. - 0021-9150. ; 262, s. 14-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and aims The pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) shares several common pathways with atherosclerosis. Prospective clinical plasma biomarker studies in AAA have been hampered by the need for very large cohorts and long follow-up time. Methods We analyzed a prospective longitudinal cohort of middle-aged individuals from the cardiovascular cohort of the Malmö Diet and Cancer study (n = 5551; 1991-94). The plasma biomarkers lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2 activity and mass), proneurotensin and C-reactive protein, and conventional risk factors at baseline were measured in patients with incident AAA during follow-up, and compared to individuals without a diagnosis of AAA. Subjects were followed until December 31st, 2013. Multivariable analyses were expressed in terms of hazard ratios (HR) per 1 standard deviation increment of each respective log-transformed plasma biomarker in the Cox proportional hazard models. Results Cumulative incidence of AAA was 1.5% (men 2.9%, women 0.5%) during a median follow-up period of 20.7 years. Overall, 84 individuals had an incident AAA, of whom 22 (26.2%) were operated on and 16 (19.0%) had ruptured. Mean age of individuals with incident AAA was 59.7 years at study entry and AAA was diagnosed on average 14 years later. When adjusting for age, gender, smoking, body mass index, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, Lp-PLA2 activity (HR 1.40; 95% CI 1.15–1.72) and Lp-PLA2 mass (HR 1.23; 95% CI 1.00–1.51) were independently associated with incident AAA. Conclusions The plasma biomarkers Lp-PLA2 activity and mass were markers of AAA risk and this implies that AAA is an athero-thrombotic related disease.
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| 7. |
- Akhter, Tansim, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Sub-clinical atherosclerosis in the common carotid artery in women with/without previous pre-eclampsia : A seven-year follow-up
- 2019
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier. - 0021-9150 .- 1879-1484. ; 290, s. 206-213
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Pre-eclampsia is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death. However, conventional common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT) measurement does not reflect this. In contrast, measurement of the individual CCA intima and media thicknesses clearly indicates increased vascular risk both at diagnosis and about one year after pre-eclampsia. This study examined whether individual CCA wall layers, risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and markers of endothelial dysfunction had normalized or remained unfavorable seven years after pre-eclampsia.METHODS: The individual CCA intima and media thicknesses were measured using 22 MHz ultrasound. Conventional cardiovascular risk factors were recorded. A thick intima, thin media and high intima/media thickness ratio (I/M) are signs of sub-clinical atherosclerosis.RESULTS: The median age of women with previous pre-eclampsia (cases = 23) or normal pregnancies (controls = 35) was 39/37 years. At follow-up (median about seven years), the intima remained thicker and the I/M was higher in cases than in controls [all p < 0.0001; p < 0.001 after adjustment for time to follow-up, body mass index (BMI), and mean arterial pressure (MAP)], whereas the CCA-IMT was illogically thinner. Further, BMI, MAP, hip circumference, abdominal height, serum endostatin and apolipoprotein B levels were higher in cases (all p < 0.05). Intima and I/M measurements were correlated with age, MAP, endostatin and apolipoprotein B, whereas no logical correlations were found for CCA-IMT.CONCLUSIONS: The arteries in cases but not controls were still adversely affected after seven years. Measuring intima thickness and I/M appears preferable to measuring CCA-IMT for demonstrating vascular risk after pre-eclampsia.
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| 8. |
- Albrektsen, G., et al.
(författare)
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Risk of incident myocardial infarction by gender: Interactions with serum lipids, blood pressure and smoking. The Tromso Study 1979-2012
- 2017
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier BV. - 0021-9150. ; 261, s. 52-59
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and aims: Overall, men have roughly twice the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) compared to women, but what causes this contrast is unclear. Identification of subgroups where the gender contrast in risk is particularly low or high, may provide new insight. In the search for such subgroups, we focus on gender-specific effects of established coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors. Heterogeneity across age groups is also explored. Methods: Population-based prospective study from Tromso, Norway, comprising 33,859 individuals (51% women); 2746 individuals (854 women) received a diagnosis of MI during follow-up at ages 35-94 years. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were calculated as estimates of relative risk in Poisson regression analyses. Results: The association between total cholesterol and risk of MI was stronger for men than women, and IRR for men vs. women accordingly increased with increasing cholesterol, but the risk was higher for men in all subgroups (IRR in range 1.63-3.27), except among older people with low cholesterol levels. The adverse effect of increasing blood pressure (BP) was stronger for women, and IRR for gender diminished with increasing systolic (from 3.90 to 1.38) and diastolic BP (from 2.87 to 1.54). The gender contrast in risk was also substantially reduced in smokers >= 75 years. Associations with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) did not differ between genders. Conclusions: Gender heterogeneity in associations with total cholesterol but not HDL-C indicates gender differences in associations with non-HDL-C. The stronger association with BP in women may relate to more severe hypertension-induced left ventricular hypertrophy. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 9. |
- Aldi, Silvia, et al.
(författare)
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Dual roles of heparanase in human carotid plaque calcification
- 2019
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD. - 0021-9150 .- 1879-1484. ; 283, s. 127-136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and aims: Calcification is a hallmark of advanced atherosclerosis and an active process akin to bone remodeling. Heparanase (HPSE) is an endo-beta-glucuronidase, which cleaves glycosaminoglycan chains of heparan sulfate proteoglycans. The role of HPSE is controversial in osteogenesis and bone remodeling while it is unexplored in vascular calcification. Previously, we reported upregulation of HPSE in human carotid endarterectomies from symptomatic patients and showed correlation of HPSE expression with markers of inflammation and increased thrombogenicity. The present aim is to investigate HPSE expression in relation to genes associated with osteogenesis and osteolysis and the effect of elevated HPSE expression on calcification and osteolysis in vitro.Methods: Transcriptomic and immunohistochemical analyses were performed using the Biobank of Karolinska Endarterectomies (BiKE). In vitro calcification and osteolysis were analysed in human carotid smooth muscle cells overexpressing HPSE and bone marrow-derived osteoclasts from HPSE-transgenic mice respectively.Results: HPSE expression correlated primarily with genes coupled to osteoclast differentiation and function in human carotid atheromas. HPSE was expressed in osteoclast-like cells in atherosclerotic lesions, and HPSE-transgenic bone marrow-derived osteoclasts displayed a higher osteolytic activity compared to wild-type cells. Contrarily, human carotid SMCs with an elevated HPSE expression demonstrated markedly increased mineralization upon osteogenic differentiation.Conclusions: We suggest that HPSE may have dual functions in vascular calcification, depending on the stage of the disease and presence of inflammatory cells. While HPSE plausibly enhances mineralization and osteogenic differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells, it is associated with inflammation-induced osteoclast differentiation and activity in advanced atherosclerotic plaques.
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