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Wang T, Cunningham A, Dokun AO, Hazarika S, Houston K, Chen L, Lye RJ, Spolski R, Leonard WJ, Annex BH. Loss of interleukin-21 receptor activation in hypoxic endothelial cells impairs perfusion recovery after hindlimb ischemia. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2015; 35:1218-25. [PMID: 25838422 PMCID: PMC4865891 DOI: 10.1161/atvbaha.115.305476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2014] [Accepted: 03/10/2015] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Surgical hindlimb ischemia (HLI) in mice has become a valuable preclinical model to study peripheral arterial disease. We previously identified that the different phenotypic outcomes after HLI across inbred mouse strains is related to a region on the short arm of mouse chromosome 7. The gene coding the interleukin-21 receptor (IL-21R) lies at the peak of association in this region. APPROACH AND RESULTS With quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, we found that a mouse strain with a greater ability to upregulate IL-21R after HLI had better perfusion recovery than a strain with no upregulation after HLI. Immunofluorescent staining of ischemic hindlimb tissue showed IL-21R expression on endothelial cells (ECs) from C57BL/6 mice. An EC-enriched fraction isolated from ischemic hindlimb muscle showed higher Il-21R levels than an EC-enriched fraction from nonischemic limbs. In vitro, human umbilical vein ECs showed elevated IL-21R expression after hypoxia and serum starvation. Under these conditions, IL-21 treatment increased cell viability, decreased cell apoptosis, and augmented tube formation. In vivo, either knockout Il21r or blocking IL-21 signaling by treating with IL-21R-Fc (fusion protein that blocks IL-21 binding to its receptor) in C57BL/6 mice resulted in less perfusion recovery after HLI. Both in vitro and in vivo modulation of the IL-21/IL-21R axis under hypoxic conditions resulted in increased signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 phosphorylation and a subsequent increase in the B-cell lymphoma leukemia-2/BCL-2-associated X protein ratio. CONCLUSION Our data indicate that IL-21R upregulation and ligand activation in hypoxic ECs may help perfusion recovery by limiting/preventing apoptosis and favoring cell survival and angiogenesis through the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Wang
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - Alexis Cunningham
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - Ayotunde O Dokun
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - Surovi Hazarika
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - Kevin Houston
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - Lingdan Chen
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - R John Lye
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - Rosanne Spolski
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - Warren J Leonard
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.)
| | - Brian H Annex
- From the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (T.W., A.C., A.O.D., S.H., K.H., L.C., R.J.L., B.H.A.) and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine (S.H., B.H.A.), University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (R.S., W.J.L.).
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