Liver X receptor agonists inhibit tissue factor expression in macrophages

Exposure of blood to tissue factor (TF) rapidly initiates the coagulation serine protease cascades. TF is expressed by macrophages and other types of cell within atherosclerotic lesions and plays an important role in thrombus formation after plaque rupture. Macrophage TF expression is induced by pro-inflammatory stimuli including lipopolysaccharide (LPS), interleukin-1beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Here we demonstrate that activation of liver X receptors (LXRs) LXRalpha and LXRbeta suppresses TF expression. Treatment of mouse peritoneal macrophages with synthetic LXR agonist T0901317 or GW3965 reduced TF expression induced by pro-inflammatory stimuli. LXR agonists also suppressed TF expression and its activity in human monocytes. Human and mouse TF promoters contain binding sites for the transcription factors AP-1, NFkappaB, Egr-1 and Sp1, but no LXR-binding sites could be found. Cotransfection assays with LXR and TF promoter constructs in RAW 264.7 cells revealed that LXR agonists suppressed LPS-induced TF promoter activity. Analysis of TF promoter also showed that inhibition of TF promoter activity by LXR was at least in part through inhibition of the NFkappaB signaling pathway. In addition, in vivo, LXR agonists reduced TF expression within aortic lesions in an atherosclerosis mouse model as well as in kidney and lung in mice stimulated with LPS. These findings indicate that activation of LXR results in reduction of TF expression, which may influence atherothrombosis in patients with vascular disease.