RESUMEN
Monocytes recruited and adhering to the inflamed arteries are crucial for atherosclerosis development. Here, we report the role of zinc (Zn2+) homeostasis in monocyte adhesion and recruitment. By comparing the expression levels of Zn2+ transporters between non-adhering and adhering monocytes, we found that the Zn2+ importer ZIP8 was specifically upregulated in monocytes adhering to the aortas ex-vivo. Although the overexpression of ZIP8 increased the absorption of Zn2+, Fe2+ and Cd2+ in monocytes, only Zn2+ supplementation was demonstrated capable of promoting the adhesion of monocytes to endothelial monolayers in vitro. In addition, we confirmed the role of ZIP8-dependent Zn2+ influx in promoting monocyte adhesion to the aortas ex-vivo. More importantly, the enforced expression of ZIP8 increased monocyte adhesion and recruitment to the nascent atherosclerotic lesions in ApoE-/- mice. Overall, our results suggest that the Zn2+ influx in monocytes regulated by ZIP8 is a novel factor determining their adhesion and recruitment to atherosclerotic lesions, and that targeting ZIP8 or Zn2+ homeostasis may represent a novel strategy to interfere these activities.
Asunto(s)
Aorta/metabolismo , Proteínas de Transporte de Catión/metabolismo , Adhesión Celular , Enfermedad de la Arteria Coronaria/metabolismo , Monocitos/metabolismo , Zinc/metabolismo , Animales , Aorta/patología , Apolipoproteínas E/genética , Proteínas de Transporte de Catión/genética , Adhesión Celular/genética , Línea Celular , Enfermedad de la Arteria Coronaria/genética , Enfermedad de la Arteria Coronaria/patología , Modelos Animales de Enfermedad , Ratones Endogámicos C57BL , Ratones Noqueados , Monocitos/patología , Regulación hacia ArribaRESUMEN
We present a new observation of photorefractive (PR) effects in bent-core nematic (BCN) liquid crystal (LC) materials, where two kinds of optical-induced gratings are demonstrated and compared in pure and surface-doped BCN systems. The experimental results showed that these two kinds of gratings exhibit distinctive different polarization-dependent and angular-dependent behaviors, respectively. Furthermore, we supplied the pure and surface-doped rodlike LC systems for comparison, which revealed that V shape molecular structure of BCN can produce charge carrier more efficiently than rodlike molecular structure does. Thus BCN materials can offer an exciting potential for optical information processing.