Abstract Tu015: Angiopoietin-like 4 Stabilizes Atherosclerotic Plaques by Modulating the Phenotypic Transition of Endothelial Cells and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Abstract

Atherosclerosis, the leading cause of death, is a vascular disease of chronic inflammation. We recently showed that angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) promotes cardiac repair by suppressing pathological inflammation. Given the fundamental contribution of inflammation to atherosclerosis, we assessed the role of ANGPTL4 in the development of atherosclerosis and determined whether ANGPTL4 regulates atherosclerotic plaque stability. We injected ANGPTL4 protein twice a week into atherosclerotic Apoe-/- mice and analyzed the atherosclerotic lesion size, endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, and plaque stability. In atherosclerotic mice, ANGPTL4 reduced the atherosclerotic plaque size, endothelial dysfunction, and vascular inflammation. Furthermore, ANGPTL4 was associated with maintenance of vascular integrity and attenuated endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in both HUVEC and atherosclerotic plaque of Apoe-/- mice. In the atherosclerotic lesions and fibrous caps, the number of α-SMA(+), SM22α(+), and SM-MHC(+) cells was higher, while the number of CD68(+) and Mac2(+) cells was lower in the ANGPTL4 group. Most importantly, the fibrous cap was significantly thicker in the ANGPTL4 group than in the PBS group. Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) isolated from atherosclerotic aortas showed significantly increased expression of CD68 and Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4), a modulator of the vascular SMC phenotype, along with downregulation of α-SMA, and these changes were attenuated by ANGPTL4 treatment. Furthermore, ANGPTL4 reduced TNFa-induced NADPH oxidase 1 (NOX1), a major source of reactive oxygen species, resulting in attenuation of KLF4-mediated SMC phenotypic changes. Our results reveal that ANGPTL4 treatment inhibits atherogenesis and suggest that targeting vascular stability and inflammation may serve as a novel therapeutic strategy to prevent and treat atherosclerosis. Even more importantly, ANGPTL4 treatment inhibited the phenotypic changes of SMCs into macrophage-like cells by downregulating NOX1 activation of KLF4, leading to the formation of more stable plaques.