| First Author | Cheng C | Year | 2009 |
| Journal | Circulation | Volume | 119 |
| Issue | 23 | Pages | 3017-27 |
| PubMed ID | 19487598 | Mgi Jnum | J:166423 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4844257 | Doi | 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.808618 |
| Citation | Cheng C, et al. (2009) Heme oxygenase 1 determines atherosclerotic lesion progression into a vulnerable plaque. Circulation 119(23):3017-27 |
| abstractText | BACKGROUND: The molecular regulation for the transition from stable to vulnerable plaque remains to be elucidated. Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) and its metabolites have been implicated in the cytoprotective defense against oxidative injury in atherogenesis. In this study, we sought to assess the role of HO-1 in the progression toward plaque instability in carotid artery disease in patients and in a murine model of vulnerable plaque development. METHODS AND RESULTS: Atherectomy biopsy from 112 patients with clinical carotid artery disease was collected and stratified according to characteristics of plaque vulnerability. HO-1 expression correlated closely with features of vulnerable human atheromatous plaque (P<0.005), including macrophage and lipid accumulation, and was inversely correlated with intraplaque vascular smooth muscle cells and collagen deposition. HO-1 expression levels correlated with the plaque destabilizing factors matrix metalloproteinase-9, interleukin-8, and interleukin-6. Likewise, in a vulnerable plaque model using apolipoprotein E(-/-) mice, HO-1 expression was upregulated in vulnerable versus stable lesions. HO-1 induction by cobalt protoporphyrin impeded lesion progression into vulnerable plaques, indicated by a reduction in necrotic core size and intraplaque lipid accumulation, whereas cap thickness and vascular smooth muscle cells were increased. In contrast, inhibition of HO-1 by zinc protoporphyrin augmented plaque vulnerability. Plaque stabilizing was prominent after adenoviral transduction of HO-1 compared with sham virus-treated animals, providing proof that the observed effects on plaque vulnerability were HO-1 specific. CONCLUSIONS: Here we demonstrate in a well-defined patient group and a murine vulnerable plaque model that HO-1 induction reverses plaque progression from a vulnerable plaque to a more stable phenotype as part of a compensatory atheroprotective response. |
