Abstract
Atheromatous lesions are formed by macrophages and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol invading the vascular intima. Here we show that increasing cholesterol levels are associated with peripheral monocyte depletion and this imbalance is aggravated by carriage of Lu/BCAM leukocyte adhesion molecules. This is true only in HIV infection and probably explains the risk of atherosclerosis observed in HIV-positive patients.
Highlights
The pathology of atherosclerosis is tightly linked to three main factors; leukocytes, plasma lipids and vascular injury or chronic inflammation.[1,2] Leukocytes such as neutrophils, activated monocytes or monocyte-derived macrophages and platelets accumulate in the vascular subendothelial matrix by use of adhesion molecules
With respect to the atherogenic non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, a stronger depletive effect was observed with monocytes (r = -0.401, p = 0.006), but not neutrophils (r = -0.226, p = 0.136)
Among HIV-negative controls, there was no correlation between monocytes and total cholesterol or non-HDL cholesterol
Summary
The pathology of atherosclerosis is tightly linked to three main factors; leukocytes, plasma lipids and vascular injury or chronic inflammation.[1,2] Leukocytes such as neutrophils, activated monocytes or monocyte-derived macrophages and platelets accumulate in the vascular subendothelial matrix by use of adhesion molecules. The Lutheran blood group, known as the basal cell adhesion molecule (Lu/BCAM), is one such molecule and is expressed on both monocytes and endothelial cells.[3] It is the natural ligand for laminin, an extracellular basement membrane protein that facilitates both adhesion and extravasation of monocytes.[3] In addition, monocytes and neutrophils constitutively express α4β1 integrin,[4] another ligand for Lu/ BCAM These molecules enable these cells to adhere to the endothelium and have been implicated in the pathology of crescentic sickle cell disease,[4] as well as in several cancers, suggesting more efficient tumour tethering and greater tumour size.[5,6]
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