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Review
. 2011 Nov;32(11):540-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.it.2011.07.001. Epub 2011 Aug 10.

How dendritic cells shape atherosclerosis

Ekaterina K Koltsova  1 , Klaus Ley
Affiliations
Review

How dendritic cells shape atherosclerosis

Ekaterina K Koltsova et al. Trends Immunol. 2011 Nov.

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the arteries, which results in major morbidity and mortality. Immune cells initiate and sustain local inflammation. Here, we focus on how dendritic cell (DC)-mediated processes might be relevant to atherosclerosis. Although only small numbers of DCs are detected in healthy arteries, these numbers dramatically increase during atherosclerosis development. In the earliest fatty streaks, DCs are found next to the vascular endothelium. During plaque growth, new DCs are actively recruited, and their egress from the vessel wall is dampened. In the adventitia next to mature atherosclerotic lesions, tertiary lymphoid organs develop, which also contain DCs. Thus, DCs probably participate in all stages of atherosclerosis from fatty streaks to mature lesions.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. DCs in normal and atherosclerotic aorta in mice
a) Structure of normal arterial wall of mouse aorta. A few macrophages (Mφ) (purple), T cells (yellow) and DC can be found mainly in the adventitial compartment. CD68+CD11c+ (blue) can be found in subendothelial space even in naïve mice. b) Atherosclerotic aorta. In atherosclerosis the thickness of intima increases due to extensive atherosclerotic plaque growth. Significant numbers of CD11b+CD11c+ cells (red) accumulate mainly in the plaque, but also in adventitia. Foam cells are formed and accumulate in large numbers in the plaque. Various types of DC (tan, green) also appear in the plaque and aorta adventitia. The number of T cells also significantly increases. c) Potential functions of myeloid cells subsets in atherosclerosis are depicted. CD68+CD11c+ cells may be identical with CD11b+CD11c+ cells
Figure 2
Figure 2. Origin of DCs and macrophages in atherosclerotic aorta
Common monocyte-DC precursor (MDP) gives rise to monocyte precursor (MP) and common DC precursor (CDP). MP gives rise to two functionally different populations of monocytes Gr1+and Gr1−. Gr1high monocytes can differentiate in tissue into inflammatory macrophages, CD11b+CD11c+ DCs and phenotypically similar CD68+CD11c+ cells. Inflammatory macrophages, CD11b+CD11c+ cells and CD68+CD11c+ cells all give rise to foam cells. CDP can further differentiate into pDC and pre-cDC, which become pDC and cDC, respectively. DC could either accumulate in arterial wall or/and migrate to draining lymph nodes for antigen presentation.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Potential functions of various DC subsets in atherosclerosis
A. CD11b+CD11c+ cells can participate in lipid accumulation and foam cell formation. B. cDC can participate in interaction with T cells and NKT cells, which results in increased production of IFNγ, IL-17 and TNFα by T cells. C. Activation of CD36 and TLRs in CD11b+CD11c+ and cDC by lipids results in increased secretion of various DC-derived cytokines. D. pDC were shown to produce IFN α,β, which play pro-atherogenic role.
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