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Lymphocyte recruitment into the normal and atherosclerosis‐prone aortic wall
Author(s) -
Galkina Elena,
Kadl Alexandra,
Sanders John,
Varughese Danielle,
Sarembock Ian J,
Ley Klaus
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a199-a
Subject(s) - adventitia , immune system , flow cytometry , aorta , lymphocyte , pathology , macrophage , medicine , immunology , chemistry , biology , in vitro , biochemistry
Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease of large arteries. We developed and validated a flow cytometry‐based method to investigate the immune cell composition of the normal/non‐inflamed and atherosclerosis‐prone murine aortas. Flow cytometry of aortic cell suspensions shows that B‐ and T‐lymphocytes, some macrophages and dendritic cells are already present in the adventitia of normal/non‐inflamed mouse aortas. Adoptively transferred lymphocytes constitutively homed to the aorta and resided within the adventitia up to 7 days after transfer. The lymphocyte trafficking was partially L‐selectin‐dependent. During progression of atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein‐E‐deficient (ApoE−/−) mice, the total number of macrophages, T‐cells and dendritic cells, but not B‐cells increased significantly. This alteration in immune composition was accompanied by the formation of follicular‐like structures in the adventitia of atherosclerotic aortas. These results demonstrate that lymphocytes already reside within the normal/non‐inflamed aorta before the onset atherosclerosis as a consequence of constitutive trafficking. Atherosclerosis induces the formation of tertiary lymphoid tissue that may support antigen presentation. This work was supported by NIH grants HL 58108, 55798 (to K.L) and AHA grant 0525532U (to E.G.).