Cannabinoid Receptor 2 Deficiency in Haematopoietic cells Aggravates Early Atherosclerosis in LDL Receptor Deficient Mice

Autor: Frank P Leijten, Anja Garritsen, Marion J.J. Gijbels, Karin Arts, Hans van Eenennaam, Dianne J.M. Delsing, Andrea van Elsas, Menno P.J. de Winther
Přispěvatelé: Other departments, Medical Biochemistry
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: open cardiovascular medicine journal, 5, 15-21. Bentham Science Publishers B.V.
The Open Cardiovascular Medicine Journal
ISSN: 1874-1924
DOI: 10.2174/1874192401105010015
Popis: Objective: The cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) has been implicated to play a role in various inflammatory proc- esses. Since atherosclerosis is currently considered a chronic inflammatory disease, we studied the effect of haema- topoietic CB2 deficiency on atherosclerosis development. Methods and results: To investigate the effect of CB2 deficiency in immune cells on atherogenesis in vivo, a bone marrow transplantation was performed in irradiated LDL receptor deficient mice (LDLr -/- ), using CB2 deficient (CB2 -/- ) or wild- type (WT) donor mice. After 12 weeks on a high fat-high cholesterol diet, en face analysis showed that atherosclerosis in the aortic arch was significantly increased in CB2 -/- transplanted animals (6.40 ± 3.21%) as compared to WT transplanted mice (3.85 ± 1.61%). Although the total lesion area in the aortic root was not significantly different between WT and CB2 -/- transplanted mice (0.45 ± 0.13 mm 2 and 0.51 ± 0.17 mm 2 , respectively), CB2 -/- transplanted mice showed a signifi- cantly larger plaque area (0.13 ± 0.07 mm 2 ) than WT transplanted mice (0.08 ± 0.05 mm 2 ) in the aortic valve in which atherogenesis is in an earlier stage than in the other aortic valves. Conclusions: Lack of endocannabinoid signaling via the CB2 receptor aggravates early atherosclerosis development in LDLr -/- mice, suggesting that CB2 specific activation may prevent the development of atherosclerosis.
Databáze: OpenAIRE