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Published on: May 26, 2021
Mutation-dependent responses to sleep and exercise in clonal haematopoiesis
Teresa Gerhardt1,2,3,4,5,6, Walter Jacob1,2,3,4,5, Lena Gaebel1,2,3,4,5
1Cardiovascular Research Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Insights
Healthy lifestyles like sleep and exercise can specifically reduce clonal hematopoiesis (CH) expansion and reprogram mutant cells, thereby lowering atherosclerosis risk. These interventions target CH mutant cells and vascular macrophages, promoting cardiovascular health.
Area of Science:
- Hematology
- Cardiovascular Biology
- Genetics
Background:
- Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) is linked to inflammation and increased atherosclerosis risk.
- The impact of lifestyle factors on CH clone expansion and cellular programming remains largely unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how lifestyle interventions, specifically sleep and exercise, affect CH clone expansion and the development of atherosclerosis.
- To determine if lifestyle interventions selectively reprogram CH mutant cells and associated immune cells.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of human datasets and murine models with various CH-associated mutations (Jak2, Tet2, Trp53, Dnmt3a).
- Assessment of clone expansion, cellular phenotypes, inflammatory signaling (IL-1β, inflammasome), and atherosclerosis.
- Investigation of molecular mechanisms involving noradrenaline and ADRβ2 signaling in macrophages.
Main Results:
- Physical activity correlated with lower non-DNMT3A-driven CH prevalence in humans.
- Sleep and exercise curtailed clone expansion in Jak2V617F and Tet2 loss-of-function (LOF) CH mouse models.
- Lifestyle interventions selectively reprogrammed mutant hematopoietic progenitor cells and vascular macrophages, reducing inflammation and atherosclerosis.
- Sleep blunted inflammasome activation in Jak2V617F macrophages, while exercise utilized noradrenaline signaling via ADRβ2 to repress inflammation.
Conclusions:
- Healthy lifestyles, including sleep and exercise, demonstrate gene-specific effects on CH.
- These interventions selectively reprogram mutant hematopoietic progenitor cells and macrophages, offering a novel strategy to mitigate CH-driven atherosclerosis.
- Lifestyle modifications represent a promising approach to maintain cardiovascular health in individuals with CH.
Abstract:
Clonal haematopoiesis (CH) activates inflammation and increases the risk of atherosclerosis1,2. Whether lifestyle alters CH clone expansion or the phenotypic programming of CH mutant cells, thereby affecting atherosclerosis, is unknown. Here, in humans and mice and across mutations in Jak2, Tet2, Trp53 and Dnmt3a, we demonstrate mutation-dependent responses to sleep and exercise in CH and show that mutant cells are uniquely sensitive to lifestyle. In two human datasets, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with lower prevalence of non-DNMT3A-driven CH. In atherogenic mice with Jak2V617F or Tet2 loss of function (LOF), but not Trp53 LOF or Dnmt3aR878H CH, uninterrupted sleep or exercise curtails clone expansion. In CH with the Jak2V617F mutation, sleep and exercise reduces clone expansion by selectively reprogramming mutant, but not cohabitant wild type, haematopoietic progenitor cells towards antiproliferative and metabolically healthy phenotypes by tempering bone marrow macrophage-haematopoietic progenitor cell IL-1β signalling. Sleep or exercise also lessens Jak2V617F-driven, Tet2 LOF-driven and Trp53 LOF-driven, but not Dnmt3aR878H-driven, atherosclerosis by locally reprogramming mutant vascular macrophages, independent of peripheral clone dynamics. In Jak2V617F, but not adjacent wild type, aortic macrophages, uninterrupted sleep blunts CLEC4E-dependent inflammasome activation, consequently diminishing lesions. Exercise, meanwhile, activates PAC1+ neurons in the locus coeruleus, raising the levels of peripheral noradrenaline, which signals through adrenergic receptor β2 (ADRβ2) whose expression is preserved by exercise in Jak2V617F, but not cohabitant wild type, aortic macrophages, selectively repressing their inflammatory programming and atherosclerosis. Our findings establish that healthy lifestyles gene-specifically diminish CH and selectively reprogram mutant haematopoietic progenitor cells and macrophages to maintain cardiovascular health.
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