RNA sequencing reveals perivascular adipose tissue plasticity in response to angiotensin II

Most blood vessels are surrounded by perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), which is a unique adipose tissue that plays critical roles in vascular physiology and pathophysiology. PVAT displays regional differences that impact vascular homeostasis. Angiotensin II (Ang II) is the main biologically active component of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), which has been extensively studied in vascular biology. However, the effects of Ang II on PVAT are less explored and remain to be elucidated. In this study, we systematically investigated the regional heterogeneity of three portions of aortic PVAT, i.e., ascending thoracic aortic PVAT (ATA-PVAT), descending thoracic aortic PVAT (DTA-PVAT) and abdominal aortic PVAT (AA-PVAT), and their responses to 7-day Ang II infusion using RNA sequencing. We found that AA-PVAT is clearly distinguished from both ATA-PVAT and DTA-PVAT, with significantly down-regulated oxidative phosphorylation and up-regulated inflammatory response pathways. Furthermore, AA-PVAT expresses lower levels of brown adipocyte marker genes, such as Ucp1, Cidea, Cox8b, Dio2 and Pgc1α, but expresses higher levels of proinflammatory genes, such as Ccl2, Il1β and Tnfα, and components of the RAAS, including Agt, Ace and Agtr1a. Ang II infusion significantly down-regulated oxidative phosphorylation in all regions of aortic PVAT and significantly up-regulated inflammatory response specifically in ATA-PVAT and DTA-PVAT. Moreover, ATA-PVAT was most responsive to Ang II induced inflammation. We further used CDGSH iron-sulfur domain-containing protein 1 (a.k.a. mitoNEET) transgenic mice that exhibit enhanced brown adipose tissue (BAT)-like phenotype in aortic PVAT, as indicated by elevated expression levels of brown adipocyte marker genes, and found that the enhanced BAT-like phenotype of aortic PVAT could counterbalance Ang II induced inflammatory and oxidative effects.