In macrophages, the accumulation of cholesteryl esters synthesized by the activated acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase-1 (ACAT1) results in the foam cell formation, a hallmark of early atherosclerotic lesions...In macrophages, the accumulation of cholesteryl esters synthesized by the activated acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase-1 (ACAT1) results in the foam cell formation, a hallmark of early atherosclerotic lesions. In this study, with the treatment of a glucocorticoid hormone dexamethasone (Dex), lipid staining results clearly showed the large accumulation of lipid droplets containing cholesteryl esters in THP-1-derived macrophages exposed to lower concentration of the oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL). More notably, when treated together with specific anti-ACAT inhibitors, the abundant cholesteryl ester accumulation was markedly diminished in THP-1-derived macrophages, confirming that ACAT is the key enzyme responsible for intracellular cholesteryl ester synthesis. RT-PCR and Western blot results indicated that Dex caused up-regulation of human ACAT1 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels in THP-1 and THP-1-derived macrophages. The luciferase activity assay demonstrated that Dex could enhance the activity of human ACAT1 gene P1 promoter, a major factor leading to the ACAT1 activation, in a cell-specific manner. Further experimental evidences showed that a glucocorticoid response element (GRE) located within human ACAT1 gene P1 promoter to response to the elevation of human ACAT1 gene expression by Dex could be functionally bound with glucocorticoid receptor (GR) proteins. These data supported the hypothesis that the clinical treatment with Dex, which increased the incidence of atherosclerosis, may in part due to enhancing the ACAT1 expression to promote the accumulation of cholesteryl esters during the macrophage-derived foam cell formation, an early stage of atherosclerosis.展开更多
In order to investigate the effects of different kinds of nuclear recipients from Kunming (KM) mouse on developmental potential of somatic nuclear transfer em- bryos, the enucleated MⅡ oocytes, enucleated zygotes and...In order to investigate the effects of different kinds of nuclear recipients from Kunming (KM) mouse on developmental potential of somatic nuclear transfer em- bryos, the enucleated MⅡ oocytes, enucleated zygotes and 2-cell blastomere were used to produce cloned mouse em-bryos. Using fibroblast deriving from C57/BL6 ear tissue as nuclear donor, we produced cloned embryos by transferring the fibroblast nuclei into enucleated KM mouse oocytes (sin-gle nuclear transfer, SNT), transferring pronuclei from the SNT embryos into enucleated KM zygotes (nuclear into zy-gote, NZ), and 2-cell blastomere nuclei from SNT embryos into enucleated KM mouse oocytes (nuclear into oocytes, NO); tetraploid embryos (tetraploid embryos, TE) were ob-tained by fusing two blastomeres, one is from the SNT cloned embryos, and the other from normal 2-cell KM mouse em-bryos. In group SNT, the cloned embryos could not develop beyond 8-cell stage and the rate of 8-cell stage is only 0.3%; in group NO, the reconstructed embryos could develop to morula stage, the rate of 8-cell stage was significantly greater than that of SNT group (P < 0.05); in group NZ, the devel-opment rate was further improved, and the reconstructed embryos could develop into blastocyst stage, the rate of blastocyst was 1.9%; in group TE, as high as 62.3% of the reconstructed embryos could develop into blastocyst. Results suggested that different nuclear recipients could significantly affect the developmental potential of cloned mouse embryos; KM MⅡ oocyte cytoplasm was not so effective as zygotes to reprogram the mouse somatic cell nuclei; serial nuclear transfer could improve the developmental potential of cloned mouse embryos.展开更多
基金supported by grants of the Major State Basic Research Development program of China(No.2002CB513000)National Scienses Foudation Center(No.30393110)+1 种基金State Science and Technology Committee(SSTC)(NO.02DJ14068)Chinese Academy of Science to Bo Liang LI,and NIH grant HL36709 to Ta Yuan CHANG.
文摘In macrophages, the accumulation of cholesteryl esters synthesized by the activated acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase-1 (ACAT1) results in the foam cell formation, a hallmark of early atherosclerotic lesions. In this study, with the treatment of a glucocorticoid hormone dexamethasone (Dex), lipid staining results clearly showed the large accumulation of lipid droplets containing cholesteryl esters in THP-1-derived macrophages exposed to lower concentration of the oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL). More notably, when treated together with specific anti-ACAT inhibitors, the abundant cholesteryl ester accumulation was markedly diminished in THP-1-derived macrophages, confirming that ACAT is the key enzyme responsible for intracellular cholesteryl ester synthesis. RT-PCR and Western blot results indicated that Dex caused up-regulation of human ACAT1 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels in THP-1 and THP-1-derived macrophages. The luciferase activity assay demonstrated that Dex could enhance the activity of human ACAT1 gene P1 promoter, a major factor leading to the ACAT1 activation, in a cell-specific manner. Further experimental evidences showed that a glucocorticoid response element (GRE) located within human ACAT1 gene P1 promoter to response to the elevation of human ACAT1 gene expression by Dex could be functionally bound with glucocorticoid receptor (GR) proteins. These data supported the hypothesis that the clinical treatment with Dex, which increased the incidence of atherosclerosis, may in part due to enhancing the ACAT1 expression to promote the accumulation of cholesteryl esters during the macrophage-derived foam cell formation, an early stage of atherosclerosis.
基金the Climbing Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 97021109-2) and the Major Project of Knowledge Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KSCX1-05-01)
文摘In order to investigate the effects of different kinds of nuclear recipients from Kunming (KM) mouse on developmental potential of somatic nuclear transfer em- bryos, the enucleated MⅡ oocytes, enucleated zygotes and 2-cell blastomere were used to produce cloned mouse em-bryos. Using fibroblast deriving from C57/BL6 ear tissue as nuclear donor, we produced cloned embryos by transferring the fibroblast nuclei into enucleated KM mouse oocytes (sin-gle nuclear transfer, SNT), transferring pronuclei from the SNT embryos into enucleated KM zygotes (nuclear into zy-gote, NZ), and 2-cell blastomere nuclei from SNT embryos into enucleated KM mouse oocytes (nuclear into oocytes, NO); tetraploid embryos (tetraploid embryos, TE) were ob-tained by fusing two blastomeres, one is from the SNT cloned embryos, and the other from normal 2-cell KM mouse em-bryos. In group SNT, the cloned embryos could not develop beyond 8-cell stage and the rate of 8-cell stage is only 0.3%; in group NO, the reconstructed embryos could develop to morula stage, the rate of 8-cell stage was significantly greater than that of SNT group (P < 0.05); in group NZ, the devel-opment rate was further improved, and the reconstructed embryos could develop into blastocyst stage, the rate of blastocyst was 1.9%; in group TE, as high as 62.3% of the reconstructed embryos could develop into blastocyst. Results suggested that different nuclear recipients could significantly affect the developmental potential of cloned mouse embryos; KM MⅡ oocyte cytoplasm was not so effective as zygotes to reprogram the mouse somatic cell nuclei; serial nuclear transfer could improve the developmental potential of cloned mouse embryos.
