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Shear stress inhibits apoptosis of human endothelial cells
Author(s) -
Dimmeler Stefanie,
Haendeler Judith,
Rippmann Volker,
Nehls Michael,
Zeiher Andreas M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(96)01289-6
Subject(s) - apoptosis , dna fragmentation , programmed cell death , biology , endothelial stem cell , microbiology and biotechnology , proteases , apoptotic dna fragmentation , tumor necrosis factor alpha , fragmentation (computing) , umbilical vein , immunology , in vitro , biochemistry , enzyme , ecology
Physiological levels of shear stress alter the genetic program of cultured endothelial cells and reduce endothelial cell turnover in vivo. To test the hypothesis that shear stress interferes with programmed cell death, apoptosis was induced in human umbilical venous endothelial cells by growth factor withdrawal or incubation with tumor necrosis factor α(TNFα) for 18 h. Apoptosis was quantified by ELISA specific for histone‐associated DNA fragments and confirmed by demonstrating the specific pattern of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation detected by electrophoresis and immunohistochemical staining. The TNFα (300 U/ml)‐mediated increase in DNA fragmentation was completely abrogated by shear stress. Furthermore, shear stress dose‐dependently reduced DNA fragmentation induced by growth factor withdrawal with maximal effect at 45 dyn/cm 2 . Inhibition of the CPP32‐like proteases with Ac‐DEVD‐CHO (100 μM) revealed similar anti‐apoptotic effects. In contrast, CPP32‐independent induction of endothelial cell apoptosis by C 2 ‐ceramide (50 μM) was not prevented by shear stress. Thus, we propose that shear stress interferes with common cell death signal transduction involving the CPP32‐like protease family and may contribute to endothelial cell integrity by inhibition of apoptosis.