Journal
ALCOHOLISM-CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
Volume 44, Issue 1, Pages 78-86Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/acer.14242
Keywords
Endothelial Progenitor Cells; NK Cells; Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis; CX3CR1 or FKN (fractalkine); CX3CL1
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Funding
- Australia India Strategic Research Fund (Australia) [AISRF07440]
- Australia India Strategic Research Fund (India) [BT/IndoAus/07/12/2013]
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Background Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) help in neovascularization and endothelial repair during injury. Patients with cirrhosis show increased number and function of EPCs in circulation. Methods Since natural killer (NK) cells regulate EPCs, we investigated the relationship between the 2 in alcoholic cirrhosis (AC, n = 50) and severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH, n = 18) patients and compared with nonalcoholic cirrhosis (n = 15) and healthy controls (HC, n = 30). Levels of systemic inflammatory cytokines were measured, and coculture assays were performed between EPCs and NK cells in contact-dependent and contact-independent manner. NK cell-mediated killing of EPCs was evaluated, and expression of receptors including fractalkine (FKN) on EPCs and its cognate receptor CX3CR1 on NK cells was studied by RT-PCR assays. Results Patients with SAH had higher regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) (p = 0.01), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (p = 0.04), IL-1 beta (p = 0.04), and IL-6 (p = 0.00) growth factors and proinflammatory cytokines as compared to AC and HC. Distinct populations of CD31+ CD34+ EPCs with low and high expression of CD45 were significantly lower in SAH than HC (CD45(low), p = 0.03; CD45(hi), p = 0.04) and AC (CD45(low), p = 0.05; CD45(hi), p = 0.02). SAH patients, however, showed increased functional capacity of EPCs including colony formation and LDL uptake. NK cells were reduced in SAH compared with AC (p = 0.002), however with higher granzyme ability (p p = 0.04, respectively). In SAH, EPC-NK cell interaction assays showed that NK cells lysed the EPCs in both contact-dependent and contact-independent assays. Expression of interaction receptor CX3CR1 was significantly higher on NK cells (p = 0.0005), while its cognate receptor, FKN, was increased on EPCs in SAH patients as compared to HC (p = 0.0055). Conclusion We conclude that in SAH, NK cells induce killing of EPCs via CX3CR1/FKN axis that may be one of the key events contributing to disease severity and proinflammatory responses in SAH.
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