Intermittent Hypoxia Alleviates β-Aminopropionitrile Monofumarate Induced Thoracic Aortic Dissection in C57BL/6 Mice

Objective: Thoracic aortic dissection (TAD) has a high mortality rate. Intermittent hypoxia (IH) triggers both harmful and beneficial effects in numerous physiological systems. The effects of IH on TAD development were explored in a mouse model. Methods: beta-Aminopropionitrile monofumarate (BAPN) was used to induce TAD in C57BL/6 mice. Three week old male mice were treated with 1 g/kg/day BAPN in drinking water for four weeks and simultaneously subjected to IH (n = 30) (21%-5% O-2, 90 s/cycle, 10 h/day, IH BAPN group) or normoxia (n = 30) (21% O-2, 24 h/day, BAPN group). Human VSMCs (HUASMCs) exposed to IH (30 min, 5% O-2)/re-oxygenation (30 min, 21% O-2) cycles with a maximum of 60 min/cycle to detect the effect of IH on HIF-1 alpha and LOX via HIF-1 alpha-siRNA. Results: It was found that BAPN administration significantly increased the lumen size and wall thickness of aortas compared with the normal group, but was significantly reversed by IH exposure. Additionally, IH exposure significantly increased the survival rate of BAPN induced TAD (70% vs. 40%). Furthermore, IH exposure reduced BAPN induced elastin breaks and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells. IH exposure also reversed BAPN induced upregulation of inflammation and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation. Real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed that IH inhibited inflammation and ECM degradation related genes interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-6, cathepsin S (Cat S), and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9), but upregulated the ECM synthesis related genes lysyl oxidase (LOX) and collagen type I alpha2 (Col1a2) compared with the BAPN group. In vitro results suggest that IH promotes the expression of LOX via HIF-1 alpha. Conclusion: The results suggest that IH alleviates BAPN induced TAD in C57BL/6 mice.