Functional profiling of resident cells during vascular aging

Introduction: Depending on surrounding cell types, substrate mechanics, and chemical agonists, vascular cell types – including endothelial (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (VSMC) — modulate their behavior to maintain homeostasis. Aging perturbs this homeostasis resulting in EC and SMC dysfunction, marked by impaired barrier integrity and pathological ECM remodeling. Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in ECs and “dedifferentiation” of VSMCs towards a synthetic phenotype are phenomenon under investigation as cellular drivers of the widespread dysregulation seen with aging. The overall goal of this project is to understand the effect of cross-talk between ECM and growth factor signaling on vascular cell plasticity during aging. Materials and Methods: Human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) were seeded onto transwell inserts after seven days treatment with or without TGF-β. After growing to confluence on the insert, cells were subjected to a FITC-dextran transwell assay. A parallel group of cells was seeded onto fibronectin coated glass-bottom dishes and stained for the expression of focal adhesion proteins and cell-type markers. Mouse aortic smooth muscle cells (maSMCs) were isolated from C57Bl6 mice at 3 (young), 6 (early middle-aged; EMA), 9 (middle-age; MA), or greater than 18 months of age (old). Cells were seeded onto dye-quenched (DQ) collagen type I (Col-I) substrate before gain of fluorescence was measured in proximity to the cell as well as in the surrounding media. A parallel group of cells were allowed to grow in media containing FITC Col-I, and gain of fluorescence was measured in proximity to the cells. Each cell type (3M, 6M, 9M, and 18M) in both experiments (DQ and FITC) were further treated with MMP inhibitor, TG2 inhibitor and TGF-β1 to measure their impacts on Col-I turnover. Results: Barrier function was not impaired in ECs cultured with TGF-β1, relative to their untreated counterparts. Mouse aortic SMCs isolated from older mice had decreased rates of Col-I cleavage and were more susceptible to MMP inhibition than their younger counterparts. Conclusions: maSMCs from older mice have lower Col-I turnover than their younger counterparts. This is consistent with bulk tissue behavior, as it is well known that relative collagen levels increase in the elastic vasculature as we age. TGF-β1 treatment did not have an effect on permeability of 4kd FITC-dextran, it is feasible that there will be an impact on the larger 70kd fragments. Travis Brady is supported by the NASEM Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.