Inflammatory micro-environmental cues of human atherothrombotic arteries confer to vascular smooth muscle cells the capacity to trigger lymphoid neogenesis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Experimental atherosclerosis is characterized by the formation of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLOs) within the adventitial layer, which involves the chemokine-expressing aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs). TLOs have also been described around human atherothrombotic arteries but the mechanisms of their formation remain poorly investigated. Herein, we tested whether human vascular SMCs play the role of chemokine-expressing cells that would trigger the formation of TLOs in atherothrombotic arteries.

Results

We first characterized, by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence analysis, the prevalence and cell composition of TLOs in human abdominal aneurysms of the aorta (AAAs), an evolutive form of atherothrombosis. Chemotaxis experiments revealed that the conditioned me

SUBMITTER: Guedj K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4280229 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature