Summary
The major complication of diabetes mellitus is accelerated atherosclerosis that entails
an inflammatory process, in which fractalkine and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1)
play a key role.We investigated the effect of diabetes-associated high glucose (HG)
on these chemokines and signalling mechanisms involved in human aortic smooth muscle
cells (SMC). Exposure of SMC to HG resulted in an increase of fractalkine and MCP-1
expression and the activated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathway,
a process associated with elevated oxidative stress.Transfection with decoy oligodeoxynucleotides
identified the involvement of transcription factors activator protein 1 (AP-1) and
nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) in the observed up-regulation of chemokines. The MAPK
inhibitors blocked the phosphorylation of IkBα and c-jun, indicating the role of MAPK
in NF-κB and AP-1 activation in SMC under HG conditions.The up-regulation of MCP-1
and fractalkine was associated with increased adhesive interactions between HG-exposed
SMC and monocytes. Treatment of HG-exposed SMC with peroxisome proliferator-activated
receptors α (PPAR α ) activators (fenofibrate and clofibrate) resulted in a reduction
of mRNA and protein expression of MCP-1 and fractalkine.In conclusion, HG upregulates
the expression of fractalkine and MCP-1 in SMC leading to increased monocyte-SMC adhesive
interactions by a mechanism involving activation of MAPK, activator protein-1 (AP-1)
and NF-κB. The increased expression of these two pro-inflammatory chemokines and the
ensuing increased adhesion between SMC and monocytes may trigger the inflammatory
process associated with further vascular complications of diabetes.
Keywords
Fractalkine - MCP-1 - high glucose - smooth muscle cells - MAPK signalling