April 1, 2011Vascular Medicine72 citations
Inflammation, neovascularization and intra-plaque hemorrhage are associated with increased reparative collagen content: Implication for plaque progression in diabetic atherosclerosis
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Structured PICO
Does diabetes mellitus increase inflammation, neovascularization, intra-plaque hemorrhage, and reparative collagen content in human aortic atherosclerotic plaques?
P
Population
42 human aortic atherosclerotic plaques procured at autopsy from lower thoracic and abdominal aorta from patients with diabetes mellitus (n = 20) and without diabetes mellitus (n = 22).
I
Intervention
Diabetes mellitus (exposure)
C
Comparator
Non-diabetes mellitus
O
Outcome
Inflammation, neovascularization, intra-plaque hemorrhage (IPH), and collagen deposition (type I and type III) in atherosclerotic plaquessurrogate
Diabetes mellitus is associated with enhanced type III collagen deposition, inflammation, neovascularization, and intra-plaque hemorrhage in aortic atherosclerotic plaques, suggesting a mechanism for accelerated plaque progression.
Abstract
Sustained inflammation may stimulate a reparative process increasing early reparative type III collagen synthesis, promoting atherosclerotic plaque progression. We evaluated inflammation, neovascularization, intra-plaque hemorrhage (IPH), and collagen deposition in human aortic atherosclerotic plaques from patients with and without diabetes mellitus (DM). Plaques were procured at autopsy from lower thoracic and abdominal aorta from DM (n = 20) and non-DM (n = 22) patients. Inflammation and neovascularization were quantified by double-label immunochemistry and the IPH grade was scored using H p < 0.001). The IPH grade was increased in DM verses non-DM plaques (0.82 ± 0.11 versus 0.29 ± 0.11; p < 0.001) (percentage grade). The density of type III was increased in DM plaques (0.16 ± 0.01 versus 0.06 ± 0.01; p < 0.001) with a non-significant reduction in type I density in DM when compared with non-DM (0.28 ± 0.03 versus 0.33 ± 0.03; p = 0.303) (content per mm²). The increase in type III collagen content correlated with total neovessel content (r = 0.58; p < 0.001) in DM plaques. In conclusion, our study suggests that enhanced type III collagen deposition was associated with inflammation, neovascularization and IPH, and may be a contributing factor in DM plaque progression.