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Methods to Evaluate Cytotoxicity and Immunosuppression of Combustible Tobacco Product Preparations
Published on: January 10, 2015
Nicotine induces pro-inflammatory response in aortic vascular smooth muscle cells through a NFκB/osteopontin
Yongyi Wang1, Fei Zhang, Wengang Yang
1Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, RenJi Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200127, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Nicotine has anti- and pro-inflammatory properties in various cells. Its role in aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) was explored. Human aortic VSMC were cultured. After nicotine (1.0 μM) and/or pyrrolidinedithiocarbamic acid (PDTC, 50 μM) treatment, the activation of nuclear factor κB (NFκB) was investigated. The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, osteopontin (OPN), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) were also assessed. After OPN was downregulated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection, the pro-inflammatory effect was reassessed. We found that NFκB was activated after nicotine administration. Nicotine upregulated OPN, IL-6, and MCP-1 expressions, and this effect attenuated after PDTC pretreatment. RNAi knocked down the OPN expression in nicotine-treated cells and abolished its pro-inflammatory effects. We concluded that nicotine induces a pro-inflammatory response in VSMC through a NFκB/osteopontin amplification loop-dependent pathway.
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