The effects of an atherogenic diet on macrophage/biomaterial interactions

We previously reported that biomaterials differentially induced macrophages to secrete growth factors that mediate reendothelialization. The present study evaluates the effect of an atherogenic diet on macrophage/biomaterial interactions. Female New Zealand white rabbits were fed an atherogenic diet. Peritoneal macrophages were harvested from these as well as rabbits fed a normal diet and cultured in Minimum Essential Medium with platelet-poor serum. Dacron or polyglactin 910 were added to two of three conditions of both cell groups in passage 2. Conditioned media were collected weekly through week 15. Mitogenicity assays were performed with quiescent mouse embryonal (BALB/c3T3) fibroblasts, atherosclerotic rabbit aortic smooth muscle cells, and murine capillary lung (LE-II) endothelial cells. Mitogenic activity was assayed by scintillation counting of tritiated thymidine incorporation into deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Results showed increased mitogenic activity released by macrophages from atherosclerotic rabbits, in the absence of prosthetic material, when assayed against every cell line. In normal diet macrophages, polyglactin 910 stimulated mitogen release for every cell line, and Dacron yielded minimal mitogen release. In lipid diet macrophages polyglactin 910 slightly increased mitogen release for all three cell lines, whereas Dacron resulted in stimulation of DNA synthesis in smooth muscle cells and BALB/c3T3 cells but less DNA synthesis in LE-II cells than in control, no graft material, media. Western blotting demonstrated immunoreactivity to basic fibroblast growth factor in media from normal diet macrophages but only in the presence of polyglactin 910 or Dacron. Radioimmunoassay for platelet-derived growth factor B chain was negative in all groups, and polymerase chain reaction techniques to amplify transforming growth factor-beta messenger ribonucleic was negative. These data demonstrate the effect of in vivo dietary manipulation on macrophage activation as well as the effect of an atherogenic diet in modulating macrophage/biomaterial interactions. Additionally, different biomaterials differentially induce macrophages to release factors that stimulate and inhibit growth.