Microarray gene expression profiling reveals antioxidant-like effects of angiotensin II inhibition in atherosclerosis

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a significant feature of atherosclerosis but the impact of ROS on atherogenesis is not clear since antioxidants such as vitamin E have little effect on atherosclerosis development in vivo. To investigate the role of ROS in atherosclerosis, we used ApoE-deficient mice, and compared the treatment effect of the antioxidant vitamin E with that of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, captopril, because angiotensin II is a major source of ROS in the vasculature. Dihydroethidium (DHE) staining demonstrated that vitamin E and captopril both prevented the atherosclerosis-induced increase in aortic superoxide content. In contrast, seven months of vitamin E treatment retarded the development of atherosclerotic lesions by only 45.8 ± 11.5% whereas captopril reduced the aortic plaque area by 88.1 ± 7.5%. To discriminate between vitamin E-sensitive and -insensitive effects of ACE inhibition, we performed whole genome microarray gene expression profiling. Gene ontology (GO) and immunohistology analyses showed that vitamin E and captopril prevented atherosclerosis-related changes of aortic intima and media genes. However, vitamin E did not reduce the expression of probe sets detecting the aortic recruitment of pro-inflammatory immune cells while immune cell-specific genes were normalized by captopril treatment. Moreover, vitamin E did not prevent the atherosclerosis-dependent down-regulation of perivascular nerve-specific genes, which were preserved in captopril-treated aortas. Taken together, our study detected antioxidant vitamin E-like effects of angiotensin II inhibition in atherosclerosis treatment regarding preservation of aortic intima and media genes. Additional vitamin E-insensitive effects targeting atherosclerosis-enhancing aortic immune cell recruitment and perivascular nerve degeneration could account for the stronger anti-atherogenic activity of ACE inhibition compared to vitamin E.