Inhibition of atherosclerotic plaque formation Sample Clauses

Inhibition of atherosclerotic plaque formation. The expression level of an array of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines was measured in atherosclerotic lesions (plaques). Vulnerable plaques recovered from culprit coronary arteries of patients with acute myocardial infarction were compared with stable plaques obtained from endarterectomy samples. An analysis of the plaques by protein arrays is shown in Fig. 12. Processing was done as described in the materials and methods section. Among the differentially expressed proteins, a significant alteration was found in the following proteins: XXXX-0, Xxxxxxx-0, XX-00, MCP-1 and TIMP-2; all exhibited a more than twofold reduction in expression in vulnerable versus stable plaques (Fig12A). In immunohistochemistry studies in atherosclerosis prone mice (apoE KO mice), fatty streaks and advanced lesions from young and older mice were stained with anti-eotaxin-2 abs as described in materials and methods. Eotaxin-2 was shown to be present within endothelial cells and within plaque macrophages (Fig. 13). mRNA expression was measured in young (6 week old) and atherosclerotic apoE KO mice. Aortas were obtained from the mice and subjected to RT-PCR as described in materials and methods. mRNA levels of eotaxin-2 and TGF-beta were assayed comparatively. Eotaxin-2 mRNA levels were found to be significantly higher in the young versus the older mice and this expression pattern paralleled the one observed with regard to the anti-atherosclerotic agent TGF-beta. Fig. 14A shows representative examples from each group. Oxidized LDL is considered to play a key role in promoting atherogenesis. Mouse H5V endothelial cells were incubated with oxidized LDL (oxLDL) (1µg/ml). oxLDL significantly upregulated eotaxin-2 mRNA levels in murine H5V endothelial cells (Fig. 14B). To determine whether eotaxin-2 has a role in the adhesion of cellular components of plaque inflammation, adhesion assays were performed on cultured endothelial cells. Splenocytes from either young or older atherosclerotic apoE KO mice were isolated from the spleen. Murine endothelial cells were incubated with oxLDL (1µg/ml) and the adhesion of the splenocytes onto the endothelial cells was examined in the presence of eotaxin 2 or control IgG antibodies (Fig 15A). Preincubation of the endothelial cells with blocking antibodies to eotaxin-2 was found to attenuate the adhesion of the splenocytes to these cells (Fig. 15A). This effect was more robust in lymphocytes from atherosclerotic (6 months old) apoE KO mice compared ...