Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 19 pp 8604—8622
Tryptophan metabolite 5-methoxytryptophan ameliorates arterial denudation-induced intimal hyperplasia via opposing effects on vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells
- 1 Institute of Cellular and System Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan 35053, Taiwan
- 2 Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 10002, Taiwan
- 3 Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei 11490, Taiwan
- 4 Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan
- 5 Department of Medical Sciences and Institute of Biotechnology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
Received: June 14, 2019 Accepted: September 28, 2019 Published: October 9, 2019
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102350How to Cite
Copyright © 2019 Chen et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly among older adults. Despite the advent of medical technology, restenosis is still an issue after interventional procedures. Tryptophan metabolite 5-methoxytryptophan (5-MTP) has recently been shown to protect against systemic inflammatory responses. This study aimed to investigate the function and mechanisms of 5-MTP in interventional procedure-induced restenosis. We found that after mouse femoral artery denudation with a guide wire, 5-MTP accelerated recovery of endothelium in the denuded area and reduced vascular leakage and intimal thickening. 5-MTP increased endothelial cell proliferation in the denuded arteries and rescued TNF-α-reduced endothelial cell proliferation and migration, likely via maintaining vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 activation. In contrast, 5-MTP preserved differentiated phenotype of medial vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and decreased VSMC proliferation and migration. Furthermore, 5-MTP maintained expression levels of critical transcription factors for VSMC marker gene expressions via attenuated activation of p38 MAPK and NFκB-p65. Our findings uncover a novel protective mechanism of 5-MTP in restenosis. In response to denudation injury, 5-MTP attenuates intimal hyperplasia via concerted but opposing actions on endothelial cells and VSMCs. Taken together, our results suggest that 5-MTP is a valuable therapeutic target for arterial injury-induced restenosis.