No abstract

Atherosclerosis can be regarded as chronic inflammatory disease driven by lipid accumulation in the arterial wall. Macrophages play a key role in the development of local inflammatory response and atherosclerotic lesion growth. Atherosclerotic plaque is a complex microenvironment, in which different subsets of macrophages coexist executing distinct, although in some cases overlapping functions. According to the classical simplified nomenclature, lesion macrophages can belong to pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory or alternatively activated types. While the former promote the inflammatory response and participate in lipid accumulation, the latter are responsible for the inflammation resolution and plaque stabilisation. Atherosclerotic lesion dynamics depends therefore on the balance between these macrophages populations. The diverse functions of macrophages make them an attractive therapeutic target for the development of novel anti-atherosclerotic treatments. In this chapter, we discuss different types of macrophages and their roles in atherosclerotic lesion dynamics and describe the results of several experiments studying macrophage polarisation in atherosclerosis.

How to cite this article: Nikiforov NG, Galstyan KO, Nedosugova LV, Elizova NV, Kolmychkova KI, Ivanova EA. Proinflammatory monocyte polarization in type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. Vessel Plus 2017;1:192-5.Aim: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with rapid progression of atherosclerosis. There is no doubt that inflammation is involved in atherogenesis. Recent studies showed the relationship between the development of atherosclerotic plaque formation and the amount of pro-inflammatory (M1) activated macrophages in situ. Methods: The authors studied the ability of circulating monocytes isolated from patients with diabetes (n = 28), coronary heart disease (CHD) (n = 27) and healthy subjects (n = 50) to be activated into M1 phenotype in vitro. Results: Increased levels of basal and stimulated secretion of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) was observed in diabetic patients compared with healthy subjects. On the contrary, in patients with CHD, decreased secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, TNF-α, was found. A direct correlation between glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in T2DM patients and basal secretion of TNF-α from monocytes was observed. Conclusion: The authors found diametrically different responses of monocytes from T2DM and CHD under pro-inflammatory stimuli. Key words:Type 2 diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, M1/M2 monocyte polarization, oxidative stress, atherosclerosis, inflammatory ABSTRACTArticle history:

No abstract