title: Chlamydia pneumoniae heat shock protein 60 enhances expression of ERK, TLR-4 and IL-8 in atheromatous plaques of coronary artery disease patients.
abstract: Chlamydia pneumoniae heat shock protein (cHSP) 60 is produced during chronic chlamydial infection and activate innate immune and inflammatory responses thereby contributing to atherogenesis. However, to date there is no apparent signaling cascade delineated in human atherosclerotic plaques in C. pneumoniae positive coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. Atherosclerotic plaques were obtained from 40 CAD patients (28 men, 12 women) attending Department of Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. Atherosclerotic plaques were used for gene expression studies at RNA level by real-time PCR and to study expression of ERK1/2, JNK1/2, NF-kB, IkkB and MCP-1 at protein level by immunoblotting. Significantly higher (p < 0.001) RNA expression was found for IL-8, TLR-2/4, TGF-β, ICAM1, VCAM1 and MAPKinase genes, whereas significantly lower (p < 0.001) RNA expression for SMAD4, IkkB, BRCA1 and IL-10 was detected in cHSP60-positive atheromatous plaque of CAD patients. Moreover, at proteins level pERK1/2 (p = 0.05), NF-kB (p = 0.017), MCP-1 (p = 0.011) was higher and IkkB expression was lower (p = 0.038) in cHSP60-positive atheromatous plaque of CAD patients. This study by using human atheromatous plaques at RNA and protein levels demonstrated higher expression of TLR-2/4, IL-8, ICAM1, VCAM1, ERK1/2 and NF-kB in cHSP60-positive CAD patients.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, ICMR, Safdarjung Hospital Campus, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Hem C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Jha
authors.forename: Pragya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.forename: Jagdish
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: Aruna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mittal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018834:Chaperonin 60 / Q000276:immunology*; D018932:Chemokine CCL2 / Q000378:metabolism; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000150:complications*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D048049:Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D016209:Interleukin-8 / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D048670:MAP Kinase Kinase 4 / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism; D058226:Plaque, Atherosclerotic / Q000276:immunology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4 / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: C111835:CCL2 protein, human; D018834:Chaperonin 60; D018932:Chemokine CCL2; D016209:Interleukin-8; D016328:NF-kappa B; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4; D048049:Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases; D048670:MAP Kinase Kinase 4