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* Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Center for Rheumatic Diseases, Kangnam St. Marys Hospital, and Research Institute of Immunobiology, Catholic Research Institutes of Medical Sciences, Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea; and
Department of Medicine, University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095
| Abstract |
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resulted in synergistic increase in MCP-1 production,
whereas the addition of control IgG lacking aCL activity did not alter
IL-1
-induced levels of MCP-1. MCP-1 mRNA expression was also
up-regulated when HUVEC were incubated with either APS-IgG or
monoclonal aCL, and down-regulated by the treatment of dexamethasone.
In addition, we found that serum levels of MCP-1 in 76 systemic lupus
erythematosus patients correlated well with the titers of IgG aCL.
Collectively, these results indicate that aCL could promote endothelial
cell-monocyte cross-talk by enhancing the endothelial production of
MCP-1, thereby shifting the hemostatic balance toward the prothrombotic
state of APS. | Introduction |
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Monocyte-endothelial cell interactions play a key role in the
development of thrombosis, inflammation, and atherosclerosis
(19, 20, 21, 22, 23). The initial step in these interactions involves
local generation of soluble chemoattractant associated with activation
of endothelium juxtaposed to the site of vascular injury. This event
causes increased recruitment of monocytes along endothelium and then
induces subsequent attachment of monocytes to endothelial cells via a
set of adhesion molecules (22). The exposure of monocytes
to endothelial cells may provide further stimuli for monocytes to
induce synthesis and release of inflammatory mediators such as IL-1 and
TNF-
. These cytokines, in turn, could enhance local inflammatory
response by promoting further monocyte attachment through increased
endothelial expression of adhesion molecules and simultaneously
inducing the release of IL-1 and TNF-
from endothelium
(23). Finally, the effects of this adhesion and cytokine
production are culminated into the enhancement of procoagulant
activity, via the induction of tissue factor expression (20, 23, 24). These events might occur at the same time, leading to
activation of coagulation followed by thrombus formation.
Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) belongs to the
or C-C
subfamily of chemokines, which stimulate the migration of monocytes
(25). MCP-1 exerts various effects on monocytes, including
the induction of integrin and tissue factor and the release of
proinflammatory cytokines and arachidonic acid (26, 27, 28, 29).
MCP-1 is produced in human endothelial cells, mononuclear phagocytes,
and fibroblasts in response to a variety of stimuli such as TNF-
,
IL-1
, IL-4, LPS, leukemia inhibitory factor, and IFN-
(25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34). The overexpression of MCP-1 has been implicated in
several pathologic conditions including atherosclerosis, thrombosis,
and inflammatory disease (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40).
It has been demonstrated that aPL induce endothelial cell activation,
which enhances the expression of adhesion molecules, thus promoting the
binding of monocytes to stressed endothelium (41). In this
study, we hypothesized that aPL could enhance the production of MCP-1
by endothelial cells to facilitate trafficking of monocytes to
endothelium, based on the fact that cross-talk between endothelial
cells and monocytes could play an important role in thrombosis. To this
end, we examined whether polyclonal and monoclonal IgG anticardiolipin
Abs (IgG aCL) derived from APS patients could induce MCP-1 production
from endothelial cells. We found that the IgG aCL was able to enhance
the expression of MCP-1 in both protein and mRNA levels. IL-1
displayed a synergistic effect on aPL-induced MCP-1 production, while
the enhanced induction of MCP-1 was suppressed by treatment of
dexamethasone (DEX). Moreover, circulating MCP-1 levels correlated well
with the titers of IgG aCL in sera of 76 systemic lupus erythematosus
(SLE) patients. Taken together, the increased endothelial release of
MCP-1 by aPL might play a important role in thrombus formation by
enhancing the influx of monocytes in concert with an endothelial
activator such as IL-1.
| Materials and Methods |
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Five SLE patients with APS seen at the Lupus Clinic of Kangnam
St. Marys Hospital (Seoul, Korea) were chosen for this study based on
the presence of aPL and thrombosis. All patients fulfilled American
College of Rheumatology criteria for the classification of APS
(42). Control sera were obtained from five SLE patients
and five healthy subjects lacking anticardiolipin Ab (aCL), all of whom
were Korean. The serologic and clinical characteristics of SLE
patients are summarized in Table I
. IgG
fractions from APS patients (APS-IgG) and control sera of SLE patients
without APS (SLE-IgG) and healthy subjects (normal controls (NC-IgG)
were purified on protein G columns (HiTrap Protein G; Pharmacia
Biotech, Uppsala, Sweden). Two mAbs against cardiolipin (CL) (CL15 and
IS4) were derived from EBV-transformed cell lines from two APS
patients, whose clinical and serologic characteristics have previously
been described (43). CL15 and IS4 were generated as the
conventional aCL (by being screened against CL in the presence of
bovine serum). Characterization of these mAb shows that CL15 and IS4
bind to CL in the presence of
2
glycoprotein I (
2gpI) and that IS4,
but not CL15, also bind to
2gpI alone. The
purity of IgG fractions was assessed by SDS-PAGE. In addition, for
determining the association between titers of IgG aCL and MCP-1 in
sera, 76 patients with SLE and 99 healthy subjects were enrolled.
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The titers of IgG aCL were determined by a standardized
commercial kit (MBL, Nagoya, Japan). Testing of IgG Abs to
2gpI was performed by a commercial ELISA
kit according to the manufacturers instructions (Genesis
Diagnostics, Littleport, U.K.). Patients were considered
positive for lupus anticoagulant (LAC) if they had a persistently
prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time, or a positive result
by thromboplastin inhibition test or the dilute Russels viper venom
test on one or more occasions. Tests were also performed in mixtures
with control plasma or with phospholipids, following the guidelines of
the subcommittee for the standardization of LAC of the International
Society of Thrombosis Hemostasis (44).
Isolation and culture of endothelial cells
HUVEC were isolated from normal-term umbilical cord vein by collagenase digestion (45) and then grown to confluence in 75-cm2 flasks containing M199 medium (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY) supplemented with 20% FBS (Life Technologies), 100 U/ml penicillin, 100 µg/ml streptomycin, and 2 mM L-glutamine. Cultures were kept at 37°C in a CO2 incubator and medium was changed every 23 days until confluence was reached. HUVEC were passed with 0.2% collagenase and 0.02% EDTA (Life Technologies); cells from passages 23 were used in these study.
MCP-1 production by aPL or cytokines
HUVEC were plated on a 24-well plate containing M199 medium
supplemented with 10% FBS at densities of 1 x
105 cells/ml, allowed to grow at 37°C for 1
day, and then washed once with M199. Cells were incubated for 24 h
with medium alone, different concentrations of APS-IgG 101(101,000
µg/ml), or aCL-mAb (150 µg/ml). IL-1
(Endogen, Woburn, MA) was
added to selected wells at the beginning of culture. To determine the
specificity of APS-IgG on MCP-1 production, absorption experiments were
performed as previously described (46). Briefly, the sera
were mixed with CL liposomes and incubated overnight at 4°C. The
mixtures were then centrifuged at 30,000 x g for 15
min at 4°C, and the supernatants were collected and kept as absorbed
sera. In some experiments, HUVEC grown in M199 medium containing 10%
FBS were washed three times with HBSS (Life Technologies) to remove
adherent serum proteins such as
2gpI, and then
cultured in a serum-free medium supplemented with
insulin-transferrin-selenium-A (Life Technologies). Thereafter,
purified human
2gpI (10 µg/ml; Crystal Chem,
Chicago, IL) was added to the serum-free HUVEC cultures. All cultures
were incubated for 24 h (unless otherwise stated), and cell-free
supernatant was collected and stored at -20°C until assay. All
cultures were set up in triplicates and the results are expressed as
mean ± SD.
Quantitative analysis of MCP-1 by ELISA
MCP-1 levels in culture supernatants and patients sera were measured by sandwich ELISA. Briefly, microtiter wells were coated with 100 µl per well of 2 µg/ml mouse anti-human MCP-1 (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) in 50 mM sodium carbonate (pH 9.6). After incubation overnight at 4°C, wells were blocked with 1% BSA in PBS for 1 h at room temperature. The human rMCP-1 (R&D Systems) or test samples were added to the wells and incubated for 2 h at room temperature. Bound MCP-1 was detected by sequential steps of adding 50 ng/ml biotinylated goat anti-human MCP-1 (R&D Systems), peroxidase-labeled extravidin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), and substrate (TMB/H2O2). An automated microplate reader was used to measure the OD at a wavelength of 450 nm. Between each step, the plate was washed four times with PBS containing 0.1% Tween 20. Human rMCP-1, diluted in culture medium ranging from 30 to 2500 pg/ml, was used as a calibration standard. A standard curve was drawn by plotting OD vs the log of the rMCP-1 concentration.
Quantitative analysis of MCP-1 mRNA by RT-PCR
Confluent HUVEC were incubated with either APS-IgG or aCL-mAb in 100-mm tissue culture dishes. After 6 h of incubation, total RNA was extracted using RNAzol B according to the manufacturers instructions (Biotecx Laboratories, Houston, TX). One microgram of RNA was reverse-transcribed at 42°C using the Superscript revere transcription system (Life Technologies) by adding 2.5 mM dNTPs, 2.5 U Taq DNA polymerase (Takara Shuzo, Shiga, Japan), and 0.25 µM sense and antisense primers. The following primers were used: sense (5'-CAATAGGAAGATCTCAGTGC-3') and antisense (5'-GTGTTCAAGTCTTCGGAGTT-3') for MCP-1 (47), and sense (5'-CCATGGAGAAGGCTGGGG-3') and antisense (5'-CAAAGTTGTCATGGATGACC-3') for GAPDH. Reactions were processed in a DNA thermal cycler (PerkinElmer/Cetus, Norwalk, CT) through cycles of 30 s of denaturation at 94°C and 45 s of annealing at 60°C, followed by 60 s of extension at 72°C. Amplifications were preceded by a denaturation of 90 s at 94°C and followed by a final extension of 7 min at 72°C. PCR rounds were repeated for 32 cycles with MCP-1 and for 28 cycles with GAPDH. Amplified products were analyzed by 2% agarose gel electrophoresis and the band intensity of products was measured by densitometer. Results were expressed as a ratio of quantified MCP-1 product over GAPDH product.
| Results |
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To study the effects of APS-IgG on MCP-1 production by endothelial
cells, HUVEC were cultured with 500 µg/ml individual IgG preparations
from five SLE patients with APS (APS-IgG), five SLE patients lacking
aCL activity (SLE-IgG), and five normal controls (NC-IgG). The results
showed that APS-IgG-treated HUVEC secreted significantly more MCP-1
than either untreated HUVEC or HUVEC cultured with either NC-IgG or
SLE-IgG. The MCP-1 levels (mean ± SD) were 201.2 ± 29.7
pg/ml for five APS-IgG-treated HUVEC and 112.6 ± 7.3 pg/ml for
five NC-IgG-treated HUVEC. The MCP-1 induced by either SLE-IgG or
NC-IgG was not significantly different from that in untreated cultures
(Fig. 1
).
|
. To determine the concentration dependence of aCL-enhanced
MCP-1 production, HUVEC were incubated with varying concentrations of
APS-IgG, SLE-IgG, NC-IgG, and aCL-mAb. The results showed that the
enhanced MCP-1 production by APS-IgG or aCL-mAb was concentration
dependent. In contrast, IgG from both SLE patients and healthy subjects
did not increase MCP-1 production even at the concentration of 1 mg/ml
(Fig. 4
45% inhibition, data not shown). To exclude the possibility
that aCL-induced MCP-1 production was due to the endotoxin
contamination, HUVEC were incubated with test IgG aCL and polymyxin B
(5 µg/ml). No reduction in aCL-induced MCP-1 production was observed
(data not shown), suggesting that endotoxin contamination did not play
a significant role in the enhancement of MCP-1 production by
aCL.
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2gpI
It has been known that binding of aCL to anionic phospholipid, as
well as the thrombotic effects of aCL, are dependent on the presence of
serum cofactor protein
2gpI (2, 48, 49). To determine whether aCL-induced MCP-1 production is
dependent on
2gpI, HUVEC were cultured with
test aCL in serum-free medium with or without
2gpI. As shown in Fig. 5
, the aCL-induced MCP-1 production in
serum-free medium was significantly lower than that in regular culture
medium. Importantly, the addition of
2gpI (10
µg/ml) restored the aCL-induced enhancement of MCP-1 production. In
contrast, the addition of
2gpI had no effect
on the MCP-1 production by HUVEC cultured with SLE-IgG. These findings
indicate that the effect of aCL on increasing MCP-1 production is
dependent on the presence of
2gpI.
|
Proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1
and TNF-
have been
shown to induce synthesis and secretion of MCP-1 by endothelial cells
(30, 31, 32). Thus, we studied possible synergistic or
antagonistic interaction(s) between aCL and IL-1
on MCP-1
production. To this end, HUVEC were cultured with a suboptimal
concentration of IL-1
(1 ng/ml), together with APS-IgG (500 µg/ml)
or aCL-mAb (10 µg/ml). The results showed that IL-1
synergized
with aCL in enhancing MCP-1 production by endothelial cells (Fig. 6
).
|
To determine whether the increased level of MCP-1 protein are
reflected at the mRNA level, we examined the effect of aCL on the
endothelial expression of MCP-1 mRNA by semiquantitative RT-PCR
analysis. Representative results from three independent experiments are
shown in Fig. 7
. Untreated HUVEC had a
minimal expression of MCP-1 mRNA (Fig. 7
, lane 1), which
increased substantially after incubation with APS-IgG (500 µg/ml;
Fig. 7
, lane 2), aCL-mAb (10 µg/ml; Fig. 7
, lane
5), or IL-1
(1 ng/ml; Fig. 7
, lane 3) for 6 h.
Simultaneous stimulation of HUVEC with IL-1
(1 ng/ml) and APS-IgG
(Fig. 7
, lane 4) or aCL-mAb (Fig. 7
, lane 6)
strongly enhanced the MCP-1 mRNA expression in a synergistic fashion.
These results were consistent with the data of MCP-1 production at the
protein level.
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It has been reported that induction of MCP-1 can be suppressed by
an anti-inflammatory agent such as glucocorticoid hormone
(50). Accordingly, we examined the effect of DEX on
aCL-induced MCP-1 production in endothelial cells. As shown in Fig. 8
, DEX inhibited both constitutive and
aCL-induced MCP-1 production in a dose-dependent manner. The maximum
effect was achieved at a concentration of 1 µM DEX (the highest dose
tested).
|
To ascertain the clinical relevance of above findings in APS
patients, we quantified MCP-1 and IgG aCL in serum samples from 76 SLE
patients and 99 healthy controls. Levels of MCP-1 correlated well with
the titers of IgG aCL in SLE patients (r = 0.62 and
p < 0.001 by Spearmans rank correlation test) (Fig. 9
A). Furthermore, we examined
serial serum samples from an APS patient collected over 36 mo who had a
high titer of IgG aCL and received initial plasmapheresis and
subsequent i.v. Ig treatment for recurrent abortion. The levels of
MCP-1 and IgG aCL rose and fell concomitantly during follow-up periods
(Fig. 9
B).
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| Discussion |
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on MCP-1 production. The effect of aCL on MCP-1 production is
2gpI dependent. In addition, circulating
levels of MCP-1 correlate well with levels of IgG aCL in patients with
SLE and are significantly higher in patients with thrombosis than in
those without (data not shown). Combined, the results of this study
show that aCL-induced MCP-1 production in endothelial cells may
represent a novel mechanism for aCL-mediated thrombosis in
APS.
Once aCL activate endothelial cells to increase their MCP-1 production,
the increased amount of MCP-1 is able to attract more monocytes to the
activated endothelial cells. The recruited monocytes in turn may
augment the further activation of endothelial cells by secreting
IL-1
and TNF-
. Ultimately, cytokines released by activated
monocytes and endothelial cells lead to the hemostatic balance of
monocyte and endothelial cells toward a prothrombotic state by inducing
tissue factor procoagulant (22, 23, 24). In contrast, MCP-1
may directly promote prothrombotic states by inducing the tissue factor
expression in monocytes (27, 28). Such a hypothesis is
supported by previous reports of high circulating levels of MCP-1
during thrombosis (38, 39, 40) and positive correlation
between plasma levels of MCP-1 and tissue factor in patients with acute
myocardial infarction (40).
It has been reported that aPL act synergistically with TNF-
in the
induction of endothelial cell extracellular matrix procoagulant
activity (51). In our study about the effect of IL-1 on
aCL-induced MCP-1 production, a synergistic induction of MCP-1 was
noted (Figs. 6
and 7
). Although the underlying mechanism of this
synergistic effect is unknown, it may be of clinical relevance for
explaining the intermittent occurrence of thrombotic events in APS
patients with high titers of aCL for prolonged periods of time. The
latter observation implies that an additional factor is required for
clinical expression of thrombosis, and aPL may serve to enhance the
thrombotic process when initiated by a triggering factor (such as IL-1
or TNF-
), which may be conferred by SLE- or non-SLE-related
endothelial cell injury.
Although corticosteroids are not generally recommended in the treatment
of APS, their use may be justified in patients with desperate
situations, such as catastrophic APS with undefined therapeutic
mechanism(s) (52, 53). In the present study, DEX was shown
to exhibit a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on both the basal and
aCL-induced MCP-1 production (Fig. 8
). These data suggest that the
therapeutic effect of corticosteroids in the treatment of catastrophic
APS might be explained, in part, by the inhibitory effect on MCP-1
production.
The intracellular signal pathway by which aPL is involved in MCP-1
up-regulation is unclear at this point. The functional NF-
B binding
site can be found in the promoter of the MCP-1 gene, and cytokines
associated with increased MCP-1 expression have been shown to activate
endothelial cells through this element (reviewed in Ref.
54). Also, Meroni et al. (55) recently
demonstrated that enhanced E-selectin expression by
anti-
2gpI Abs in HUVEC is associated with
NF-
B activation. In our preliminary study, we observed that
treatment with antioxidant pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate, a well-known
inhibitor of NF-
B, significantly abrogated the aPL-induced
up-regulation of MCP-1 (data not shown). Given that the negative
regulation of glucocorticoids and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate on
NF-
B activation is well documented (56), these data,
along with inhibitory effect by DEX, underscore the involvement of
NF-
B activation in aPL-mediated MCP-1 induction in endothelial
cells. The effect of aPL on NF-
B activation and other signal
molecules is now under investigation.
In summary, we report that aCL induces MCP-1 production in HUVEC at the
protein and mRNA levels. Moreover, MCP-1 levels are correlated with the
titers of IgG aCL in SLE patients; aCL and IL-1
act synergistically
to augment endothelial production of MCP-1; and DEX inhibited both the
basal and aCL-enhanced MCP-1 production. Combined, these data represent
a novel mechanism for aCL-mediated thrombosis in APS patients and may
provide potential bases for MCP-1 blockade in the treatment of
APS.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Chul-Soo Cho, Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Center for Rheumatic Diseases, Kangnam St. Marys Hospital, 505 Banpo-Dong, Seocho-Ku, Seoul, 137-040, Korea. E-mail address: chocs{at}cmc.cuk.ac.kr ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: aPL, antiphospholipid Ab; CL, cardiolipin; aCL, anti-CL Ab; MCP-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1; SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus; APS, antiphospholipid syndrome; NC, normal control;
2gpI,
2 glycoprotein I; DEX, dexamethasone; LAC, lupus anticoagulant. ![]()
Received for publication September 10, 2001. Accepted for publication February 13, 2002.
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