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Mutual amplification of corticosteroids and angiotensin systems in human vascular smooth muscle cells and carotid atheroma

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Abstract

The involvement of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and cortisol in increased cardiovascular risk is well known. If numerous relationships between RAAS and corticosteroids have been described, their interactions within the arterial wall, especially during the transdifferentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and the atheroma formation, are not established. Here, we clarified the relationships between mRNA levels of corticosteroid and angiotensin system components using cortisol, fludrocortisone, and angiotensin II treatments of cultured VSMCs maintained in a contractile phenotype or induced to a lipid storing phenotype. We then determined the quantitative relationships between the mRNA content of these components measured with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), in the atheroma plaque and nearby macroscopically intact tissue (MIT) from 27 human carotid endarterectomy samples. In both VSMC phenotypes, cortisol markedly increased both angiotensinogen (AGT) and AT1-receptor (AT1R) mRNA levels. These effects of cortisol were mediated via glucocorticoid receptor-α (GRα) without any illicit activation of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). Angiotensin II increased GRα, 11βHSD1, CYP11B1, as well as CYP11B2 mRNAs and decreased AT1R in contractile VSMC; only GRα and CYP11B2 were increased in lipid storing VSMCs, while MR and AGT mRNAs decreased. In endarterectomy specimens, positive correlations between mRNA levels of AGT and aldosterone synthase or 11βHSD1 in MIT and of AT1R and MR in atheroma were detected. The arterial tissue angiotensin system is a target for local glucocorticoids and arterial glucocorticoids for angiotensin II. Both systems appear activated in lipid storing VSMCs and strongly correlated in vivo, and their mutual amplification may contribute to the development of atheroma.

Key message

  • Cortisol increases angiotensin II signaling in VSMCs via GRα.

  • Angiotensin II stimulates cortisol signaling through increased GRα and 11β-HSD1.

  • Corticoid and angiotensin receptors are strongly correlated in the arterial wall.

  • These correlations are maintained at different stages of atheroma development.

  • An auto-amplification loop between angiotensin and cortisol signaling favors atherogenesis.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Valérie Maggi and Noëlle Gallo-Bona for technical assistance in performing the RIAs for hormonal measurements, Lydie Barek for the carotid collection, and Dr. Ghislaine Geelen PhD for revision of the English version of the manuscript. This work was supported by institutional funding from INSERM, Région Rhône-Alpes, and University Lyon1, France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hôpital Nord Ouest, Villefranche, Université Lyon1, INSERM, ERI22, 8 Avenue Rockefeller, EA 4173, Lyon, France

    Hanène Ayari, Liliana Legedz, Catherine Cerutti, Pierre Lantelme, Patrick Feugier, Marie-Paule Gustin, Olivier Lohez, Ali Nehme, Jacques Yuan Li & Giampiero Bricca

  2. Faculté de Médecine de Tunis, Laboratoire de Biochimie, Tunis, Tunisia

    Hanène Ayari & Jouda Gharbi-Chihi

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  1. Hanène Ayari
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  2. Liliana Legedz
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Correspondence to Giampiero Bricca.

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Hanène Ayari and Liliana Legedz contributed equally to the work.

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Ayari, H., Legedz, L., Cerutti, C. et al. Mutual amplification of corticosteroids and angiotensin systems in human vascular smooth muscle cells and carotid atheroma. J Mol Med 92, 1201–1208 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-014-1193-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-014-1193-7

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