Macrophage Phenotypes in the Adipose Tissue of Postmenopausal Women

Abstract

Atherosclerosis pathology is the interplay between high intravascular LDL particle concentration and monocyte/ macrophage presence within the sub-endothelial space of the artery. In this project, phenotypes of macrophages connected with subclinical inflammation in adipose tissue of living kidney donors were studied. Samples of subcutaneous adipose tissue of living kidney donors (n=36) were exposed to collagenase. Stromal vascular fraction (SVF) was eluted from the samples, then labeled with monoclonal antibodies (anti-CD14 and anti-calprotectin), conjugated with fluorochromes and analyzed by flow cytometry. The positive correlation between the number of total macrophages and calprotectin-positive macrophages with BMI in the subcutaneous adipose tissue of postmenopausal women was demonstrated (p<0.05; R=0.43 and p<0.01; R=0.60), whereas no positive correlation in premenopausal women and men was shown. In conclusion, we documented a significant effect of BMI increase on the presence of total macrophages in adipose tissue of postmenopausal women, in contrast to premenopausal women. This difference was much more pronounced when proinflammatory macrophages with membrane-bound calprotectin were analyzed.

Pro-Inflammatory Gene Expression in Adipose Tissue of Patients With Atherosclerosis

“…When comparing younger and older individuals within the group of LKDs (cut-off point 50 years) we did not find any difference either in the blood plasma cytokine concentration or in the gene expression of any of the genes in any AT. The absence of any age-dependent difference is not surprising as we observed (Kralova Lesna et al 2015b) no correlation with pro-inflammatory macrophages in the AT of male LKDs, and a higher number of infiltrated macrophages population was found in women which increases after menopause (only 5 of the whole LKD group) (Králová et al 2015).…”