Different Impacts of Intermittent Hypoxia and Hypercapnia on Atherosclerotic Formation

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder characterized by intermittent hypoxia and hypercapnia (IHC) during sleep and has been considered a risk for atherosclerosis. However, the particular role of intermittent hypoxia (IH), intermittent hypercapnia (IC) or their combination (IHC) in inducing or promoting atherosclerosis remains obscure. To dissect the mechanisms involved, we examined atherosclerotic formation in the Aorta, Aortic arch and Pulmonary artery (PA) in pro‐atherogenesis mouse model apolipoprotein E (ApoE) deficient mice, after IHC, IH, or IC exposure on high fat diet (HFD) as compared to room air (RA) groups either under HFD or regular chow (RC). Our data revealed that all HFD‐treated mice exhibited more atherosclerotic lesions than those fed with RC (e.g. Aorta, RA‐HFD 8.1±0.8% vs RA‐RC 1.0±0.3%, p<0.01). 10‐week IHC treatment expedited atherosclerosis in Aorta, Aortic arch and PA as compared to room air controls in the presence of HFD (Aorta, IHC‐HFD 13.8±1.0% vs RA‐HFD 8.1±0.8%, p<0.01; Aortic arch, IHC‐HFD 28.5±1.9% vs RA‐HFD 16.6±2.0%, p<0.01; PA, IHC‐HFD 28.9±2.8% vs RA‐HFD 12.2±1.5%, p<0.01). Furthermore, IHC‐induced atherosclerosis in Aorta was significantly greater than in IC or IH (Aorta, IHC‐HFD 13.8±1.0% vs either IH‐HFD 7.6±0.4%, p<0.01 or IC‐HFD 11.1±0.7%, p<0.05), indicating that the effect of IHC is the result of potential interactions between IC and IH. Interestingly, in the PA, the largest atherosclerotic formation was observed in IH‐treated mice, followed by IHC then IC (PA, IH‐HFD 40.9±2.0% vs either IHC‐HFD 28.9±2.8%, p<0.01 or IC‐HFD 20.1±2.6%, p<0.01), suggesting that (a) IH has a greater effect on the PA than on the Aorta and (b) IC may alleviate IH‐ or IHC‐induced lesion in the PA. Our findings suggest that (1) IH, IC and IHC affect the development of atherosclerosis differently and (2) distinct vasculatures (Aorta and Pulmonary artery) react to IHC, IH, IC differently in atherogenesis.Support or Funding InformationSupported by the National Institutes of Health grant 5 P01 32573 (G.G.H.)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.