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Published on: February 11, 2022
Glutamine Protects against Mouse Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm through Modulating VSMC Apoptosis and M1 Macrophage
Jinxi Wang1, Xingwen Da1, Yifei Chen1
1Department of Cardiology, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, State Key Laboratory for Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 160 Pujian Road, Shanghai 200127, China.
Abstract:
Glutamine (Gln), known as the most abundant free amino acid, is widely spread in human body. In this study, we demonstrated the protective effects of glutamine against mouse abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) induced by both angiotensin II (AngII) and calcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2) in vivo, which was characterized with lower incidence of mouse AAA. Moreover, histomorphological staining visually presented more intact elastic fiber and less collagen deposition in abdominal aortas of mice treated by glutamine. Further, we found glutamine inhibited the excessive production of reactive oxide species (ROS), activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), M1 macrophage activation, and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in suprarenal abdominal aortas of mice, what's more, the high expressions of MMP-2 protein, MMP-9 protein, pro-apoptotic proteins, and IL-6 as well as TNF-α in protein and mRNA levels in cells treated by AngII were down-regulated by glutamine. Collectively, these results revealed that glutamine protected against mouse AAA through inhibiting apoptosis of VSMCs, M1 macrophage activation, oxidative stress, and extracellular matrix degradation.
