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Activation of T‐Lymphocytes by LDL‐Cholesterol
Author(s) -
Arneth Borros
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
lipids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.601
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1558-9307
pISSN - 0024-4201
DOI - 10.1007/s11745-008-3273-3
Subject(s) - lipidology , clinical chemistry , cholesterol , chemistry , ldl cholesterol , lymphocyte activation , biochemistry , medicine , immunology , immune system , t cell
Native LDL‐cholesterol can be mechanically stressed by strong vortexing. According to one hypothesis, mechanical shear stress within the vessel can lead to an aggregation of LDL‐cholesterol and subsequently to activation of CD4 and CD8 T‐lymphocytes. The goal of this study was to determine the proportion of activated CD4 and CD8 T‐lymphocytes that is induced by adding unstressed and mechanically stressed LDL‐cholesterol to whole blood samples. Whole blood was taken from 12 healthy subjects. All probands fasted for at least 12 h before blood withdrawal. In each case, 1 ml of whole blood from each subject was incubated for 16 h at 32 °C (89.3 °F) with concanavalin A (A), without additive (B), with mechanically stressed LDL‐cholesterol (C) or with native LDL‐cholesterol (D). Subsequently, the samples were measured by four‐color flow cytometry. CD3, CD4, CD8, and CD69 were measured as activity markers. CD69 was plotted against CD4 and CD8, and the proportions of activated CD4 and CD8 T‐lymphocytes were determined. Native and vortexed LDL‐cholesterol elicited significantly different types of T‐cell activation. While native LDL activated CD4 T‐cells to only a small extent, mechanically stressed (vortexed) LDL potently activated CD8 T‐cells. Purely mechanically‐induced changes in LDL‐cholesterol may be one mechanism that contributes to the activation of CD8 cells and, as a consequence, the emergence of arteriosclerosis.