1. Academic Validation
  2. Asprosin induces vascular endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in diabetic lower extremity peripheral artery disease

Asprosin induces vascular endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in diabetic lower extremity peripheral artery disease

  • Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2022 Feb 15;21(1):25. doi: 10.1186/s12933-022-01457-0.
Mei You 1 Yushuang Liu 1 Bowen Wang 1 Li Li 1 Hexuan Zhang 1 Hongbo He 1 Qing Zhou 1 Tingbing Cao 1 Lijuan Wang 1 Zhigang Zhao 1 Zhiming Zhu 2 Peng Gao 3 Zhencheng Yan 4
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Hypertension and Endocrinology, Center for Hypertension and Metabolic Diseases, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing Institute of Hypertension, 10 Chang Jiang Zhi Lu, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400042, China.
  • 2 Department of Hypertension and Endocrinology, Center for Hypertension and Metabolic Diseases, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing Institute of Hypertension, 10 Chang Jiang Zhi Lu, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400042, China. zhuzm@yahoo.com.
  • 3 Department of Hypertension and Endocrinology, Center for Hypertension and Metabolic Diseases, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing Institute of Hypertension, 10 Chang Jiang Zhi Lu, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400042, China. gaopengscu@aliyun.com.
  • 4 Department of Hypertension and Endocrinology, Center for Hypertension and Metabolic Diseases, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing Institute of Hypertension, 10 Chang Jiang Zhi Lu, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400042, China. zhenchengyan@sina.com.
Abstract

Background: Altered adipokine secretion in dysfunctional adipose tissue facilitates the development of atherosclerotic diseases including lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD). Asprosin is a recently identified adipokine and displays potent regulatory role in metabolism, but the relationship between asprosin and lower extremity PAD remains uninvestigated.

Methods: 33 type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients (DM), 51 T2DM patients with PAD (DM + PAD) and 30 healthy normal control (NC) volunteers were recruited and the blood samples were collected for detecting the circulatory asprosin level and metabolomic screening. RNA Sequencing was performed using the aorta tissues from the type 2 diabetic db/db mice and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were treated with asprosin to determine its impact on the endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT).

Results: The circulating levels of asprosin in DM + PAD group were significantly higher than that of NC group and the DM group. Circulating asprosin level was remarkably negatively correlated with ankle-brachial index (ABI), even after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and other traditional risk factors of PAD. Logistic regression analysis revealed that asprosin is an independent risk factor for PAD and receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve determined a good sensitivity (74.5%) and specificity (74.6%) of asprosin to distinguish PAD. Data from metabolomics displayed a typical characteristics of de novo amino acid synthesis in collagen protein production by myofibroblasts in patients with PAD and activation of TGF-β signaling pathway appeared in the aortic tissue of db/db mice. Asprosin directly induces EndMT in HUVECs in a TGF-β-dependent manner as TGF-β signaling pathway inhibitor SB431542 erased the promotional effect of asprosin on EndMT.

Conclusions: Elevated circulatory asprosin level is an independent risk factor of lower extremity PAD and might serve as a diagnostic marker. Mechanistically, asprosin directly induces EndMT that participates in vascular injury via activation of TGF-β signaling pathway. Trial registration This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT05068895.

Keywords

Asprosin; Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition; Lower extremity peripheral artery disease; TGF-β signaling pathway; Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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