ATM-dependent suppression of stress signaling reduces vascular disease in metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is associated with insulin resistance and atherosclerosis. Here, we show that deficiency of one or two alleles of ATM, the protein mutated in the cancer-prone disease ataxia telangiectasia, worsens features of the metabolic syndrome, increases insulin resistance, and accelerates atherosclerosis in apoE-/- mice. Transplantation with ATM-/- as compared to ATM+/+ bone marrow increased vascular disease. Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activity was increased in ATM-deficient cells. Treatment of ATM+/+apoE-/- mice with low-dose chloroquine, an ATM activator, decreased atherosclerosis. In an ATM-dependent manner, chloroquine decreased macrophage JNK activity, decreased macrophage lipoprotein lipase activity (a proatherogenic consequence of JNK activation), decreased blood pressure, and improved glucose tolerance. Chloroquine also improved metabolic abnormalities in ob/ob and db/db mice. These results suggest that ATM-dependent stress pathways mediate susceptibility to the metabolic syndrome and that chloroquine or related agents promoting ATM activity could modulate insulin resistance and decrease vascular disease.

Origin of cardiac fibroblasts and the role of periostin.

Cardiac fibroblasts are the most populous nonmyocyte cell type within the mature heart and are required for extracellular matrix synthesis and deposition, generation of the cardiac skeleton, and to electrically insulate the atria from the ventricles. Significantly, cardiac fibroblasts have also been shown to play an important role in cardiomyocyte growth and expansion of the ventricular chambers during heart development. Although there are currently no cardiac fibroblast-restricted molecular markers, it is generally envisaged that the majority of the cardiac fibroblasts are derived from the proepicardium via epithelial-to-mesenchymal transformation. However, still relatively little is known about when and where the cardiac fibroblasts cells are generated, the lineage of each cell, and how cardiac fibroblasts move to reside in their final position throughout all four cardiac chambers. In this review, we summarize the present understanding regarding the function of Periostin, a useful marker of the noncardiomyocyte lineages, and its role during cardiac morphogenesis. Characterization of the cardiac fibroblast lineage and identification of the signals that maintain, expand and regulate their differentiation will be required to improve our understanding of cardiac function in both normal and pathophysiological states.

The matricellular protein periostin is required for sost inhibition and the anabolic response to mechanical loading and physical activity.

Periostin (gene Postn) is a secreted extracellular matrix protein involved in cell recruitment and adhesion and plays an important role in odontogenesis. In bone, periostin is preferentially expressed in the periosteum, but its functional significance remains unclear. We investigated Postn(-/-) mice and their wild type littermates to elucidate the role of periostin in the skeletal response to moderate physical activity and direct axial compression of the tibia. Furthermore, we administered a sclerostin-blocking antibody to these mice in order to demonstrate the influence of sustained Sost expression in their altered bone phenotypes. Cancellous and cortical bone microarchitecture as well as bending strength were altered in Postn(-/-) compared with Postn(+/+) mice. Exercise and axial compression both significantly increased bone mineral density and trabecular and cortical microarchitecture as well as biomechanical properties of the long bones in Postn(+/+) mice by increasing the bone formation activity, particularly at the periosteum. These changes correlated with an increase of periostin expression and a consecutive decrease of Sost in the stimulated bones. In contrast, mechanical stimuli had no effect on the skeletal properties of Postn(-/-) mice, where base-line expression of Sost levels were higher than Postn(+/+) and remained unchanged following axial compression. In turn, the concomitant injection of sclerostin-blocking antibody rescued the bone biomechanical response in Postn(-/-) mice. Taken together, these results indicate that the matricellular periostin protein is required for Sost inhibition and thereby plays an important role in the determination of bone mass and microstructural in response to loading.

PPARalpha suppresses insulin secretion and induces UCP2 in insulinoma cells.

Fatty acids may promote type 2 diabetes by altering insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells, a process known as lipotoxicity. The underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. To test the hypothesis that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) has a direct effect on islet function, we treated INS-1 cells, an insulinoma cell line, with a PPARalpha adenovirus (AdPPARalpha) as well as the PPARalpha agonist clofibric acid. AdPPARalpha-infected INS-1 cells showed PPARalpha agonist- and fatty acid-dependent transactivation of a PPARalpha reporter gene. Treatment with either AdPPARalpha or clofibric acid increased both catalase activity (a marker of peroxisomal proliferation) and palmitate oxidation. AdPPARalpha induced carnitine-palmitoyl transferase-I (CPT-I) mRNA, but had no effect on insulin gene expression. AdPPARalpha treatment increased cellular triglyceride content but clofibric acid did not. Both AdPPARalpha and clofibric acid decreased basal and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Despite increasing fatty acid oxidation, AdPPARalpha did not increase cellular ATP content suggesting the stimulation of uncoupled respiration. Consistent with these observations, UCP2 expression doubled in PPARalpha-treated cells. Clofibric acid-induced suppression of glucose-simulated insulin secretion was prevented by the CPT-I inhibitor etomoxir. These data suggest that PPARalpha-stimulated fatty acid oxidation can impair beta cell function.

Beta3 integrin deficiency promotes atherosclerosis and pulmonary inflammation in high-fat-fed, hyperlipidemic mice.

Hyperlipidemia promotes the chronic inflammatory disease atherosclerosis through poorly understood mechanisms. Atherogenic lipoproteins activate platelets, but it is unknown whether platelets contribute to early inflammatory atherosclerotic lesions. To address the role of platelet aggregation in diet-induced vascular disease, we studied beta3 integrin-deficient mice (lacking platelet integrin alphaIIbbeta3 and the widely expressed nonplatelet integrin alphavbeta3) in two models of atherosclerosis, apolipoprotein E (apoE)-null and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR)-null mice. Unexpectedly, a high-fat, Western-type (but not a low-fat) diet caused death in two-thirds of the beta3-/-apoE-/- and half of the beta3-/-LDLR-/- mice due to noninfectious pneumonitis. In animals from both models surviving high-fat feeding, pneumonitis was absent, but aortic atherosclerosis was 2- to 6-fold greater in beta3-/- compared with beta+/+ littermates. Expression of CD36, CD40L, and CD40 was increased in lungs of beta3-/-LDLR-/- mice. Each was also increased in smooth muscle cells cultured from beta3-deficient mice and suppressed by retroviral reconstitution of beta3. These data show that the platelet defect caused by alphaIIbbeta3 deficiency does not impair atherosclerotic lesion initiation. They also suggest that alphavbeta3 has a suppressive effect on inflammation, the loss of which induces atherogenic mediators that are amplified by diet-induced hyperlipidemia.