Abstract
The intracellular signaling pathways by which G protein–coupled receptors on the platelet surface initiate aggregation, a critical process for hemostasis and thrombosis, are not well understood. In particular, the contribution of the Gi pathway has not been directly addressed. We have investigated the activation of platelets from mice in which the gene for the predominant platelet Gαi subtype, Gαi2, has been disrupted. In intact platelets from Gαi2-deficient mice, the inhibition of adenylyl cyclase by ADP was found to be partially impaired compared with wild-type platelets. Moreover, both ADP-dependent platelet aggregation and the activation of the integrin αIIbβ3 (GPIIb-IIIa) were strongly reduced in platelets from Gαi2-deficient mice. In addition, Gαi2-deficient platelets displayed impaired activation at low thrombin concentrations. This defect was mimicked by blocking the adenylyl cyclase–coupled platelet ADP receptor (P2Y12) on wild-type platelets with a selective antagonist. These observations suggest that Gαi2 is involved in the inhibition of platelet adenylyl cyclase in vivo and is a critical component of the signaling pathway for integrin activation by ADP, resulting in platelet aggregation. In addition, thrombin-dependent activation of mouse platelets is mediated, at least in part, by secreted ADP acting on the Gαi2–linked ADP receptor.
Authors
Hans-Michael Jantzen, David S. Milstone, Laurent Gousset, Pamela B. Conley, Richard M. Mortensen
Abstract
CD14, a myeloid cell-surface receptor and soluble plasma protein, binds LPS and other microbial molecules and initiates the innate immune response to bacterial invasion. The blood concentration of soluble CD14 (sCD14) increases during the systemic response to infection. Although high sCD14 blood levels have correlated with increased risk of dying from severe sepsis, sCD14 can diminish cell responses to LPS. We show here that in human serum, sCD14 increases the rate at which cell-bound LPS is released from the monocyte surface and binds to plasma lipoproteins. This enhanced rate of LPS efflux is associated with a significant reduction in the ability of monocytes to produce cytokines in response to LPS. Serum from septic patients reduced the LPS-monocyte interaction by as much as tenfold, and depletion of sCD14 from the serum restored LPS-monocyte binding and release kinetics to near normal levels. In serum from septic patients, monocyte-bound LPS also moved more rapidly into lipoproteins, which completely neutralized the biologic activity of the LPS that bound to them. In human plasma, sCD14 thus diminishes monocyte responses to LPS by transferring cell-bound LPS to lipoproteins. Stress-related increases in plasma sCD14 levels may help prevent inflammatory responses within the blood.
Authors
Richard L. Kitchens, Patricia A. Thompson, Suganya Viriyakosol, Grant E. O’Keefe, Robert S. Munford
Abstract
A DNA nonbinding mutant of the NK2 class homeoprotein Nkx2.5 dominantly inhibits cardiogenesis in Xenopus embryos, causing a small heart to develop or blocking heart formation entirely. Recently, ten heterozygous CSX/NKX2.5 homeoprotein mutations were identified in patients with congenital atrioventricular (AV) conduction defects. All four missense mutations identified in the human homeodomain led to markedly reduced DNA binding. To examine the effect of a DNA binding–impaired mutant of mouse Csx/Nkx2.5 in the embryonic heart, we generated transgenic mice expressing one such allele, I183P, under the β-myosin heavy chain promoter. Unexpectedly, transgenic mice were born apparently normal, but the accumulation of Csx/Nkx2.5(I183P) mutant protein in the embryo, neonate, and adult myocardium resulted in progressive and profound cardiac conduction defects and heart failure. P-R prolongation observed at 2 weeks of age rapidly progressed into complete AV block as early as 4 weeks of age. Expression of connexins 40 and 43 was dramatically decreased in the transgenic heart, which may contribute to the conduction defects in the transgenic mice. This transgenic mouse model may be useful in the study of the pathogenesis of cardiac dysfunction associated with CSX/NKX2.5 mutations in humans.
Authors
Hideko Kasahara, Hiroko Wakimoto, Margaret Liu, Colin T. Maguire, Kimber L. Converso, Tetsuo Shioi, Weei-Yuarn Huang, Warren J. Manning, David Paul, Joel Lawitts, Charles I. Berul, Seigo Izumo
Abstract
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains the leading cause of death in developed countries. Although reperfusion of coronary arteries reduces mortality, it is associated with tissue injury. Endothelial P-selectin–mediated infiltration of neutrophils plays a key role in reperfusion injury. However, the mechanism of the P-selectin induction is not known. Here we show that infarct size after ischemia/reperfusion was significantly smaller in mice lacking guanylyl cyclase-A (GC-A), a natriuretic peptide receptor. The decrease was accompanied by decreases in neutrophil infiltration in coronary endothelial P-selectin expression. Pretreatment with HS-142-1, a GC-A antagonist, also decreased infarct size and P-selectin induction in wild-type mice. In cultured endothelial cells, activation of GC-A augmented H2O2-induced P-selectin expression. Furthermore, ischemia/reperfusion–induced activation of NF-κB, a transcription factor that is known to promote P-selectin expression, is suppressed in GC-A–deficient mice. These results suggest that inhibition of GC-A alleviates ischemia/reperfusion injury through suppression of NF-κB–mediated P-selectin induction. This novel, GC-A–mediated mechanism of ischemia/reperfusion injury may provide the basis for applying GC-A blockade in the clinical treatment of reperfusion injury.
Authors
Takehiko Izumi, Yoshihiko Saito, Ichiro Kishimoto, Masaki Harada, Koichiro Kuwahara, Ichiro Hamanaka, Nobuki Takahashi, Rika Kawakami, Yuhao Li, Genzo Takemura, Hisayoshi Fujiwara, David L. Garbers, Seibu Mochizuki, Kazuwa Nakao
Abstract
The kidneys “escape” from the Na-retaining effects of aldosterone when circulating levels of aldosterone are inappropriately elevated in the setting of normal or expanded extracellular fluid volume, e.g., in primary aldosteronism. Using a targeted proteomics approach, we screened renal protein extracts with rabbit polyclonal antibodies directed to each of the major Na transporters expressed along the nephron to determine whether escape from aldosterone-mediated Na retention is associated with decreased abundance of one or more of renal Na transporters. The analysis revealed that the renal abundance of the thiazide-sensitive Na-Cl cotransporter (NCC) was profoundly and selectively decreased. None of the other apical solute-coupled Na transporters displayed decreases in abundance, nor were the total abundances of the three ENaC subunits significantly altered. Immunocytochemistry showed a strong decrease in NCC labeling in distal convoluted tubules of aldosterone-escape rats with no change in the cellular distribution of NCC. Ribonuclease protection assays (RPAs) revealed that the decrease in NCC protein abundance was not associated with altered NCC mRNA abundance. Thus, the thiazide-sensitive Na-Cl cotransporter of the distal convoluted tubule appears to be the chief molecular target for regulatory processes responsible for mineralocorticoid escape, decreasing in abundance via a posttranscriptional mechanism.
Authors
Xiao-Yan Wang, Shyama Masilamani, Jakob Nielsen, Tae-Hwan Kwon, Heddwen L. Brooks, Søren Nielsen, Mark A. Knepper
Abstract
The close association between autoantibodies against pyruvate dehydrogenase-E2 (PDC-E2), a ubiquitous mitochondrial protein, and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is unexplained. Many autoantigens are selectively modified during apoptosis, which has focused attention on apoptotic cells as a potential source of “neo-antigens” responsible for activating autoreactive lymphocytes. Since increased apoptosis of bile duct epithelial cells (cholangiocytes) is evident in patients with PBC, we evaluated the effect of apoptosis on PDC-E2. Autoantibody recognition of PDC-E2 by immunofluorescence persisted in apoptotic cholangiocytes and appeared unchanged by immunoblot analysis. PDC-E2 was neither cleaved by caspases nor concentrated into surface blebs in apoptotic cells. In other cell types, autoantibody recognition of PDC-E2, as assessed by immunofluorescence, was abrogated after apoptosis, although expression levels of PDC-E2 appeared unchanged when examined by immunoblot analysis. Both overexpression of Bcl-2 and depletion of glutathione before inducing apoptosis prevented this loss of autoantibody recognition, suggesting that glutathiolation, rather than degradation or loss, of PDC-E2 was responsible for the loss of immunofluorescence signal. We postulate that apoptotic cholangiocytes, unlike other apoptotic cell types, are a potential source of immunogenic PDC-E2 in patients with PBC.
Authors
Joseph A. Odin, Robert C. Huebert, Livia Casciola-Rosen, Nicholas F. LaRusso, Antony Rosen
Abstract
A complement factor D deficiency was found in a young woman who had experienced a serious Neisseria meningitidis infection, in a deceased family member with a history of meningitis, and in three relatives without a history of serious infections. The patient and these three relatives showed a normal activity of the classical complement pathway, but a very low activity of the alternative complement pathway and a very low capacity to opsonize Escherichia coli and N. meningitidis (isolated from the patient) for phagocytosis by normal human neutrophils. The alternative pathway-dependent hemolytic activity and the opsonizing capacity of these sera were restored by addition of purified factor D. The family had a high degree of consanguinity, and several other family members exhibited decreased levels of factor D. The gene encoding factor D was found to contain a point mutation that changed the TCG codon for serine 42 into a TAG stop codon. This mutation was found in both alleles of the five completely factor D–deficient family members and in one allele of 21 other members of the same family who had decreased or low-normal factor D levels in their serum. The gene sequence of the signal peptide of human factor D was also identified. Our report is the first, to our knowledge, to document a Factor D gene mutation. The mode of inheritance of factor D deficiency is autosomal recessive, in accordance with the localization of the Factor D gene on chromosome 19. Increased susceptibility for infections in individuals with a partial factor D deficiency is unlikely.
Authors
Douwe H. Biesma, André J. Hannema, Heleen van Velzen-Blad, Leontine Mulder, Rob van Zwieten, Irma Kluijt, Dirk Roos
Abstract
Patients with scleroderma receiving Iloprost as a treatment for severe Raynaud’s phenomenon report a reduction in skin tightness, suggesting that this drug inhibits skin fibrosis. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a recently described profibrotic cytokine, acts downstream and in concert with TGF-β to stimulate the fibrotic process and is involved in the fibrosis seen in scleroderma. Here we show that Iloprost, acting by elevation of cAMP, blocks the induction of CTGF and the increase in collagen synthesis in fibroblasts exposed to TGF-β. The potency of Iloprost with respect to suppression of CTGF far exceeds that of other prostanoid receptor agonists, suggesting that its effect is mediated by the prostacyclin receptor IP. By sampling dermal interstitial fluid using a suction blister device, we show that CTGF levels are greatly elevated in the dermis of scleroderma patients compared with healthy controls and that Iloprost infusion causes a marked decrease in dermal CTGF levels. These studies suggest that Iloprost could be reducing the level of a key profibrotic cytokine in scleroderma patients and that endogenous production of eicosanoids may limit the fibrotic response to TGF-β.
Authors
Richard Stratton, Xu Shiwen, Giorgia Martini, Alan Holmes, Andrew Leask, Thomas Haberberger, George R. Martin, Carol M. Black, David Abraham
Abstract
Lymphocytes represent a potentially important proinflammatory cell that localizes to atherosclerotic lesions. To determine whether they contribute to lesion development, atherosclerosis-prone (LDLR–/–) mice were crossed with lymphocyte-deficient (RAG1–/–) mice to generate double knockout progeny. After 8 weeks on a Western-type diet (WTD), lesion development was reduced by 54% in double knockout mice, as compared with matched LDLR–/– controls. However, these significant differences in lesion area gradually subsided as the WTD was continued for 12 and 16 weeks. Consistent with this observation, histological studies determined that lesion initiation and early progression were delayed in RAG1/LDL-R double knockout mice. Differences in lesion area did not correlate with any significant alterations in plasma lipid levels. These studies suggest that lymphocytes play an important role early in atherogenesis.
Authors
Li Song, Cynthia Leung, Christian Schindler
Abstract
Vascular complications arising from multiple environmental and genetic factors are responsible for many of the disabilities and short life expectancy associated with diabetes mellitus. Here we provide the first direct in vivo evidence that interactions between advanced glycation end products (AGEs; nonenzymatically glycosylated protein derivatives formed during prolonged hyperglycemic exposure) and their receptor, RAGE, lead to diabetic vascular derangement. We created transgenic mice that overexpress human RAGE in vascular cells and crossbred them with another transgenic line that develops insulin-dependent diabetes shortly after birth. The resultant double transgenic mice exhibited increased hemoglobin A1c and serum AGE levels, as did the diabetic controls. The double transgenic mice demonstrated enlargement of the kidney, glomerular hypertrophy, increased albuminuria, mesangial expansion, advanced glomerulosclerosis, and increased serum creatinine compared with diabetic littermates lacking the RAGE transgene. To our knowledge, the development of this double transgenic mouse provides the first animal model that exhibits the renal changes seen in humans. Furthermore, the phenotypes of advanced diabetic nephropathy were prevented by administering an AGE inhibitor, (±)-2-isopropylidenehydrazono-4-oxo-thiazolidin-5-ylacetanilide (OPB-9195), thus establishing the AGE-RAGE system as a promising target for overcoming this aspect of diabetic pathogenesis.
Authors
Yasuhiko Yamamoto, Ichiro Kato, Toshio Doi, Hideto Yonekura, Seiji Ohashi, Masayoshi Takeuchi, Takuo Watanabe, Sho-ichi Yamagishi, Shigeru Sakurai, Shin Takasawa, Hiroshi Okamoto, Hiroshi Yamamoto
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