Acute mental stress drives vascular inflammation and promotes plaque destabilization in mouse atherosclerosis
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Date
2021-10-14
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Abstract
Aims: Mental stress substantially contributes to the initiation and progression of human disease, including cardiovascular conditions. We aim to investigate the underlying mechanisms of these contributions since they remain largely unclear. Methods and results: Here, we show in humans and mice that leucocytes deplete rapidly from the blood after a single episode of acute mental stress. Using cell-tracking experiments in animal models of acute mental stress, we found that stress exposure leads to prompt uptake of inflammatory leucocytes from the blood to distinct tissues including heart, lung, skin, and, if present, atherosclerotic plaques. Mechanistically, we found that acute stress enhances leucocyte influx into mouse atherosclerotic plaques by modulating endothelial cells. Specifically, acute stress increases adhesion molecule expression and chemokine release through locally derived norepinephrine. Either chemical or surgical disruption of norepinephrine signalling diminished stress-induced leucocyte migration into mouse atherosclerotic plaques. Conclusion: Our data show that acute mental stress rapidly amplifies inflammatory leucocyte expansion inside mouse atherosclerotic lesions and promotes plaque vulnerability.
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Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.
Keywords
Acute mental stress, Atherosclerosis, Leucocyte recruitment, Neuroimmune interaction, Sympathetic nervous system, Vascular inflammation, 3.2 Clinical medicine, 3.1 Basic medicine, 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database, Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine, SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Citation
Hinterdobler, J, Schott, S S, Jin, H, Meesmann, A, Steinsiek, A L, Zimmermann, A S, Wobst, J, Müller, P, Mauersberger, C, Vilne, B, Baecklund, A, Chen, C S, Moggio, A, Braster, Q, Molitor, M, Krane, M, Kempf, W E, Ladwig, K H, Hristov, M, Hulsmans, M, Hilgendorf, I, Weber, C, Wenzel, P, Scheiermann, C, Maegdefessel, L, Soehnlein, O, Libby, P, Nahrendorf, M, Schunkert, H, Kessler, T & Sager, H B 2021, 'Acute mental stress drives vascular inflammation and promotes plaque destabilization in mouse atherosclerosis', European Heart Journal, vol. 42, no. 39, pp. 4077-4088. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab371