Risk factors, endothelial cell turnover and lipid transport in atherogenesis

Cardiovascular diseases remain to be the 4th rank of top ten causes of mortality in Taiwan in recent years. Atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease, which often culminating in the occurrence of myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure, are responsible for the majority of these death. One of the prominent features of atherosclerotic lesion is local accumulation of lipids, mainly in the forms of cholesteryl ester and free cholesterol, either within cells or extracellularly in matrix. Repeated endothelial injury and enhanced lipid infiltration are critical events in the development of atherosclerosis. Plasma lipoproteins may enter the arterial wall through endothelium, either transcellularly via vesicular transport or paracellularly via intercellular junction. Our previous studies have demonstrated that most of the arterial endothelial cells in mitosis are associated with the leakage of fluorescently labeled albumin and low density lipoproteins. Subsequently, such transendothelial leakage of macromolecules is also shown to be associated with endothelial cell death as assessed by immunocytochemical staining for IgG. These findings suggested that transiently leaky junctions occurring during endothelial cell turnover may provide potentially important pathways for increasing transport or leakage of macromolecules, including atherogenic LDL, across the vascular endothelium. Electron microscopic study using horseradish peroxidase as a tracer revealed markedly widening of intercellular junctions around endothelial cells in mitosis providing direct evidence in support of "cell turnover-leaky junction" theory for the localization of atherogenesis. Hypertension, smoking, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia are well-known major risk factors for atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. In a series of investigations, we examined the hypothesis that hypertension smoking, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia increase the arterial endothelial cell turnover and hence transendothelial macromolecular transport, which may have some implications in increasing lipid entry and thus, accelerating atherogenesis. Animal experiments were performed in adult male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) normotensive rats, and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. SHRs were used as hypertensive group with WKY rats as normotensive control. SD rats were given nicotine at a dose of 5 mg/Kg body wt/ day in their drinking water to mimic smoking effect over a period of 6 weeks. Diabetes was induced in SD rats by single intraperitoneal injection of 60 mg/Kg body wt of streptozotocin. The duration of diabetes was 6 weeks. Also, SD rats were fed a diet containing 5% cholesterol for 6 weeks to induce hyperlipidemia. Age-matched rats of comparable number served as control for each experimental group. In en face preparations of thoracic aorta, mitotic endothelial cells were identified by hematoxylin staining, immunoglobulin G-containing dying or dead endothelial cells were detected by an indirect immunoperoxidase method, and endothelial leakage to Evans blue-albumin (EBA) complexes (5 minutes after intravenous injection) was visualized and quantified by fluorescence microscopy. The results showed that SHR, chronic oral nicotine-treated rats, diabetic, rats, and hyperlipidemic rats, when compared to control rats, had higher values for the frequency of endothelial cell death and the number density of EBA leaky foci in the aorta. These findings suggested that hypertension, cigarette smoking, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia become risk factors in atherogenesis by increasing the rate of arterial endothelial cell turnover and the associated endothelial cell turnover and the to the consequent enhanced entry of atherogenic lipoproteins into the arterial wall and accelerated atherogenesis.