The role and mechanism of pyroptosis in abdominal aortic aneurysm / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life-threatening disease associated with chronic inflammation in the vascular wall while its specific pathogenesis is not fully understood. Recently, a growing number of studies have indicated that pyroptosis, which is a pro-inflammatory kind of programmed cell death might play a vital role in AAA. In this review, we first summarize the role of pyroptosis in AAA progression by not only providing a literature review on the expression changes of NLRP3 inflammasome components and effector mediators in clinical and experimental AAAs, but also discussing the effects of genetic defects or pharmacological inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome components on experimental AAAs. Next, we introduce the mechanism of canonical and non-canonical pathway of pyroptosis and its activation and execution process. Finally, we discuss several pyroptosis-related drug targets for treating AAA by inhibiting the assembly of NLRP3 inflammasome and its effector mediators. In conclusion, we believe that pyroptosis might be a new treatment target of AAA.

IKKε accelerates abdominal aortic aneurysm formation in mice by increasing VSMCs autophagy / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

Objective:To investigate the effect of IKKε on autophagy during abdominal aortic aneurysm formation in mice.Methods:We stimulated ApoE -/- mice and ApoE -/-IKKε -/- mice with AngⅡ and saline for 28 days. Metaboilic levels and aortic diameter of ApoE -/- mice and ApoE -/-IKKε -/- mice were measured. The arterial fibrosis of mice was detected by Masson staining and HE staining, mitochondrial reactive oxides were detected by fluorescence assay, the expression levels of autophagy factors LC3B and Beclin-1 were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the protein level of LC3B was detected by Western blot. Results:There was no significant difference in metaboilic levels between ApoE -/- mice and ApoE -/- IKKε -/- mice. However, the aortic diameterf ApoE -/-IKKε -/- mice was significantly less than that of ApoE -/- mice. The fibrosis level of ApoE -/-IKKε -/- mice was significantly lower than that of ApoE -/- mice. Furthermore, ROS in ApoE -/-IKKε -/- mice was lower than that in ApoE -/- mice. In addition, immunohistochemical and western blot showed that the expression levels of LC3B and Beclin-1 in ApoE -/-IKKε -/- mice were significantly lower than in ApoE -/- mice. Conclusion:IKKε -/- deficiency can significantly inhibit autophagy, thus reducing the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm in mice.