Objective-Lack of endothelial nitric oxide synthase worsens atherosclerosis at least by increasing monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the molecular mechanism elicited by NO. Methods and Results-We evaluated atherosclerosis in apoE and NOS3/apoE-deficient mice fed with high-cholesterol diet. We found significant increase in aortic lesion size, and infiltration of macrophages in NOS3/apoE-null mice when compared to apoE-deficient animals. To test the relevance of cellular adhesion as well as extracellular matrix degradation, we evaluated ICAM-1, VCAM-1, PECAM-1, MMP-2, MMP-9, MMP-12, MT1-MMP, and MMP-13 levels in mouse aortas. Lack of NO inhibits MMP-13 and increases ICAM-1 levels in atherosclerosis as compared to apoE-null mice. Ectopically expression of ICAM-1 in eukaryotic cells revealed that extracellular domain of ICAM-1 harbors a substrate recognized by MMP-13. Incubation of COS-7 cells expressing ectopic ICAM-1 in the presence of active MMP-13 induced inhibition of RAW 264.7 cell adhesion to COS-7 monolayers. MALDI-TOF MS analysis combined to Liquid chromatography coupled to Ion Trap MS on ICAM-1 incubated with MMP-13 allowed us to determine the cleavage sites of MMP-13 at positions E61 and G98 of ICAM-1. G98 is part of a PDGQS moiety, which shows homology with the consensus PDGLS substrate located at the MMP-13 cleaved site of type II collagen I-alpha. (ICAM-1). In aortas of apoE-null mice, ICAM-1 was found located in lesion-prone sites of the aorta, 2 and the importance of this inflammatory molecule was evidenced in atherosclerotic mice deficient in ICAM-1, which resulted protected from atherosclerotic lesions. 3 The role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) has been analyzed in detail in late atherosclerosis. 4,5 However, the precise role of MMPs in the early steps of this pathology is still debated. In this regard, the effect of MMPs in the shedding of adhesion molecules was investigated in vitro, 6 although no data were reported in the context of atherosclerosis.
Conclusions-TakingLack of endothelial NOS (eNOS, NOS3) increases leukocyte-endothelial adhesion, smooth muscle cell migration, platelet aggregation, and atherosclerosis in mice. 7,8 However, the mechanisms by which NOS3 could prevent atherosclerosis still remain unclear. Here we found that in atherosclerotic NOS3/apoE-deficient mice, increased monocyte adhesion, and a significant reduction of MMP-13 expression, were detected when compared to apoE-deficient animals. In addition, we found that MMP-13 cleaves ICAM-1 both in vivo and in vitro. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed 2 sites at positions E61 and G98, close to the ICAM-1 extracellular N-terminal domain. The relevance of MMP-13 and ICAM-1 on cellular adhesion was found in COS-7 cells expressing ectopic ICAM-1, in which RAW 264.7 cell adhesion was inhibited by the presence of active MMP-13. Our findings may help to explain at the molecular level the protective effect of endothelial NO in atherosclerosis.
Methods
ReagentsGeneral cell culture ...