DEFICIENCY OF MYELOID PHD PROTEINS AGGRAVATES ATHEROGENESIS VIA MACROPHAGE APOPTOSIS AND PARACRINE FIBROTIC SIGNALING: Atherogenic effects of myeloid PHD knockdown

Aims

Atherosclerotic plaque hypoxia is detrimental for macrophage function. Prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs) initiate cellular hypoxic responses, possibly influencing macrophage function in plaque hypoxia. Thus, we aimed to elucidate the role of myeloid PHDs in atherosclerosis.

Methods and results

Myeloid-specific PHD knockout (PHDko) mice were obtained via bone marrow transplantation (PHD1ko, PHD3ko) or conditional knockdown through lysozyme M-driven Cre recombinase (PHD2cko). Mice were fed high cholesterol diet for 6–12 weeks to induce atherosclerosis. Aortic root plaque size was significantly augmented 2.6-fold in PHD2cko, and 1.4-fold in PHD3ko compared to controls but was unchanged in PHD1ko mice. Macrophage apoptosis was promoted in PHD2cko and PHD3ko mice in vitro and in vivo, via the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) 1α/BNIP3 axis. Bulk and single-cell RNA data of PHD2cko bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) and plaque macrophages, respectively, showed enhanced HIF1α/BNIP3 signalling, which was validated in vitro by siRNA silencing. Human plaque BNIP3 mRNA was positively associated with plaque necrotic core size, suggesting similar pro-apoptotic effects in human. Furthermore, PHD2cko plaques displayed enhanced fibrosis, while macrophage collagen breakdown by matrix metalloproteinases, collagen production, and proliferation were unaltered. Instead, PHD2cko BMDMs enhanced fibroblast collagen secretion in a paracrine manner. In silico analysis of macrophage-fibroblast communication predicted SPP1 (osteopontin) signalling as regulator, which was corroborated by enhanced plaque SPP1 protein in vivo. Increased SPP1 mRNA expression upon PHD2cko was preferentially observed in foamy plaque macrophages expressing ‘triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2’ (TREM2hi) evidenced by single-cell RNA, but not in neutrophils. This confirmed enhanced fibrotic signalling by PHD2cko macrophages to fibroblasts, in vitro as well as in vivo.

Conclusion

Myeloid PHD2cko and PHD3ko enhanced atherosclerotic plaque growth and macrophage apoptosis, while PHD2cko macrophages further activated collagen secretion by fibroblasts in vitro, likely via paracrine SPP1 signalling through TREM2hi macrophages.

Parametric decay of oblique Alfvén waves in two-dimensional hybrid simulations

Certain types of plasma waves are known to become parametrically unstable under specific plasma conditions, in which the pump wave will decay into several daughter waves with different wavenumbers and frequencies. In the past, the related plasma instabilities have been treated analytically for various parameter regimes and by use of various numerical methods, yet the oblique propagation with respect to the background magnetic field has rarely been dealt with in two dimensions, mainly because of the high computational demand. Here we present a hybrid-simulation study of the parametric decay of a moderately oblique Alfvén wave having elliptical polarization. It is found that such a compressive wave can decay into waves with higher and lower wavenumbers than the pump.

Clustering of additional autoimmunity behaves differently in Hashimoto's patients compared with Graves' patients

OBJECTIVE

It is unclear whether Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves' disease (often referred to as autoimmune thyroid disease, AITD) cluster to the same extent with other autoimmune disorders.

METHODS

We assessed adrenal, β-cell, celiac and gastric antibodies in a cohort of 523 adult patients with Graves' disease and 359 patients with Hashimoto's disease and compared their clustering.

RESULTS

Adrenal autoimmunity associated more often with Hashimoto's disease (9.0%) than with Graves' disease (3.3%, P=0.001). β-cell autoimmunity was seen more frequently in Hashimoto's disease (25.4%) than in Graves' disease (15.6%, P=0.001) patients. We found low prevalences of celiac autoimmunity (1.2% for Graves' and 1.2% for Hashimoto's disease). Celiac and gastric autoimmunity were not statistically different in Hashimoto's and Graves' disease patients. Although gastric autoimmunity itself was equally prevalent (around 20%), Hashimoto's disease often showed significantly more clustering of adrenal autoimmunity with gastric autoimmunity (5.3%) than Graves' disease (1.2%, P=0.001). Similarly, clustering of adrenal autoimmunity was seen with β-cell autoimmunity in Hashimoto's patients (3.2%), while such clustering was much less encountered in 359 Graves' patients (0.9%, P=0.029).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Hashimoto's disease shows a markedly higher clustering of additional autoimmunity, especially with adrenal and β-cell autoimmunity. Combined clustering of gastric and adrenal autoimmunity and combined clustering of adrenal and β-cell autoimmunity were both seen more often in Hashimoto's patients. Clustering with celiac disease appears to be low. These findings indicate that Hashimoto's and Graves' disease differ in their clinical expression regarding additional autoimmunity, which argues against the indiscriminate use of AITD as an entity.

Preferential heating and acceleration of alpha particles by Alfvén-cyclotron waves

Preferential heating and acceleration of heavy ions in the solar wind and corona represent a long-standing theoretical problem in space physics, and are distinct experimental signatures of kinetic processes occurring in collisionless plasmas. We show that fast and slow ion-acoustic waves (IAW) and transverse waves, driven by Alfvén-cyclotron wave parametric instabilities can selectively destroy the coherent fluid motion of different ion species and, in this way lead to their differential heating and acceleration. Trapping of the more abundant protons by the fast IAW generates a proton beam with drift speed of about the Alfvén speed. Because of their larger mass, alpha particles do not become significantly trapped and start, by conservation of total ion momentum, drifting relative to the receding bulk protons. Thus the resulting core protons and the alpha particles are differentially heated via pitch-angle scattering.