Cytokine regulation of env gene expression of human endogenous retrovirus-R in human vascular endothelial cells.
To determine whether human endogenous retroviruses are implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory vascular diseases of unknown etiology, we examined mRNA expression of a human endogenous retrovirus, HERV-R, which has a long open reading frame in the env region, in cultured human vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells stimulated in the presence of various cytokines. mRNA of HERV-R was always evident in these cells but not in fibroblastic cells. Levels of expression in vascular endothelial cells were significantly regulated by treatment with tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1alpha, and IL-1beta as up-regulators and interferon-gamma as a down-regulator. These observations are interpreted to mean that HERV-R expression may be up- or down-regulated at sites of inflammation in vessels in vivo and hence may play a pathogenetic role in inflammatory vascular diseases in humans, perhaps similar to endogenous retroviruses in mouse models of polyarteritis nodosa in humans.
Katsumata
K
K
School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Kita-15, Nishi-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8638, Japan.
Ikeda
H
H
Sato
M
M
Ishizu
A
A
Kawarada
Y
Y
Kato
H
H
Wakisaka
A
A
Koike
T
T
Yoshiki
T
T
D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016207:Cytokines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D015752:Genes, env / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000166:cytology; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D016207:Cytokines; D012333:RNA, Messenger