ECTS2013 Poster Presentations Calciotropic and phosphotropic hormones and mineral metabolism (33 abstracts)
Vasculature and bone: stages of atherosclerosis come along with changes in gene expression levels of calcification regulators
Natascha Schweighofer 1 , Ariane Aigelsreiter 2 , Martina Graf-Rechberger 2 , Nicole Hacker 1 , Daniela Kniepeiss 3 , Philipp Stiegler 3 , Olivia Trummer 1 , Thomas Pieber 1 , Matthias Ulbing 1 , Doris Wagner 3 , Helmut Müller 3 & Barbara Obermayer-Pietsch 1
1Divison of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria; 2Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria; 3Division of Transplantation Surgery, Department of Surgery, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Calcification in the vasculature is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular diseases and mortality outcomes. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate changes in the gene expression of calcification regulators (CR) in arterial vessels during different stages of atherosclerosis and to document potential corresponding changes in the bone. OPG, RANKL, OPN, MGP, BSP-II and RUNX2 were candidate genes for our study in bone, aorta and arteria ilica externa tissue samples of 22 transplant donors. Atherosclerotic changes in the vessels were defined by three histological stages of atherosclerosis: i) no changes, ii) intima thickening or iii) intima calcification. Bone tissue samples were subgrouped accordingly.
Results: The comparison of gene expression levels of CR in vascular tissue revealed that the expression of CR was already changed in thickened vessels and kept stable during calcification. Therefore, we compared unaffected with affected vessels. We found that the expression of BSP-II and OPN was significantly (P=0.034) and RANKL expression was by trend decreased (P=0.085) in affected vessels as compared to unaffected ones. In comparing bone and vascular tissue, patients without atherosclerosis (stage 0) showed no differences in CR expression in bone and vascular tissue. In stage 1 patients, expression of MGP (P=0.002) and OPG (P=0.001) was significantly higher in bone than in both vessel types, whereas in stage 2 patients, OPG expression increased in both vessel types.
Conclusion: Our study indicates that changes in the expression of CR in the vasculature occurs already in the stage of thickening of the vessel wall, even prior to deposition of calcium/phosphate precipitation and that simultanously, the level of expression of CR changes in bone.
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Bone Abstracts
ISSN 2052-1219 (online)
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