Journal
AGING AND DISEASE
Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages 747-763Publisher
INT SOC AGING & DISEASE
DOI: 10.14336/AD.2020.1120
Keywords
SCAP; Inflammation; Atherosclerosis; VSMC; NLRP3
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [81873569, 81900406, 32030054]
- National Key R&D Program of China [2018YFC1312700]
- Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [KJZD-K201800401]
- Chongqing Research Program of Basic Research and Frontier Technology [cstc2020jcyj-zdxmX0007]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2019M663448]
- Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing Province [CSTC2019JCYJBSHX0094]
- 111 Project [D20028]
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The presence of sterol-resistant SCAP in vascular smooth muscle cells of mice induces vascular inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and accelerates atherosclerosis progression by activating the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway.
Atherosclerosis is a serious age-related pathology, and one of its hallmarks is the presence of chronic inflammation. Sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) cleavage-activating protein (SCAP) is a cholesterol sensor that plays an essential role in regulating intracellular cholesterol homeostasis. Accordingly, dysregulation of the SCAP-SREBP pathway has been reported to be closely associated with an increased risk of obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and cardiovascular disease. In this study, we explored whether sterol-resistant SCAP (D443N mutation) in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) of mice promotes vascular inflammation and accelerates the occurrence and progression of atherosclerosis. We established a transgenic knock-in mouse model of atherosclerosis with an activating D443N mutation at the sterol-sensing domain of SCAP (SCAP(D443N)) by microinjection. Next, SCAP(D443N)/ApoE(-/-) mice were generated by crossing SCAP(D443N) mice with apolipoprotein E-/- (ApoE(-/-)) background mice. We found that sterol-resistant SCAP markedly amplified and accelerated the progression of atherosclerotic plaques in SCAP(D443N)/ApoE(-/-) mice compared with that in control ApoE(-/-) mice. Similarly, in SCAP(D443N) mice, aortic atherosclerotic plaques both appeared earlier and were greater in number than that in control SCAP(+/+) mice, both of which were fed a Western diet for 12 or 24 weeks. Moreover, we observed that sterol-resistant SCAP significantly increased local inflammation and induced endothelial dysfunction in the aortas of SCAP(D443N) mice and SCAP(D443N)/ApoE(-/-) mice. In vitro, we also found that sterol-resistant SCAP overexpression in VSMCs increased the release of inflammatory cytokines and induced endothelial cell injury when both cell types were cocultured. Furthermore, we demonstrated that sterol-resistant SCAP overexpression in VSMCs promoted SCAP and NLRP3 inflammasome cotranslocation to the Golgi and increased the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. These findings suggested that sterol-resistant SCAP in VSMCs of mice induced vascular inflammation and endothelial dysfunction, consequently accelerating atherosclerosis by activating the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway.
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