Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Perivascular adipose tissue has been implicated in vascular physiology and pathology, including atherosclerosis. Local adipokine production is one of the paracrine mechanisms involved in this adipose tissue fuction. We investigated the expression of adipokines chemerin and adiponectin and their receptors CMKLR1 and T-cadherin, respectively, in human coronary arterial wall and pericoronary fat as well as their correlation with coronary atherosclerosis.

Methods: Paraffin embedded samples of human left coronary arteries (n=38) including periadventitial fat were evaluated for chemerin, adiponectin, CMKLR1 and T-cadherin expression using immunohistochemistry. AHA classification was used for atherosclerosis assessment. PASW Statistics was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Atherosclerosis was detected in 35/38 coronary arteries. Chemerin was expressed in pericoronary fat (38/38 samples), coronary vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs; 38/38 samples) and foam cells in coronary atherosclerotic lesions (32/35 samples). Adiponectin was expressed by periadventitial fat in 37/38 samples. CMKLR1 was expressed in coronary VSMCs (15/38 samples) and foam cells (22/35 samples). T-cadherin was detected in VSMCs (38/38 samples) and endothelia (33/38 samples). Foam cell chemerin expression and CMKLR1 expression were positively interrelated in coronary atherosclerotic lesions (r=0.406, P=0.016). Periadventitial fat adiponectin expression was positively correlated with coronary VSMC (r=0.427, P=0.007) and endothelial (r=0.432, P=0.007) T-cadherin expression. Coronary atherosclerosis was positively correlated with coronary foam cell chemerin (r=0.365, P=0.031) and CMKLR1 expression (r=0.349, P=0.04), while negatively correlated with pericoronary fat adiponectin (r=−0.531, P=0.001) and marginally (not statistically significant) with coronary VSMC T-cadherin expression (r=−0.307, P=0.06).

Conclusions: Our data lend further support to a possible role for chemerin and its receptor in the atherosclerotic process, probably with pro-atherogenic effects. They also suggest that T-cadherin may serve as a receptor that mediates adiponectin’s anti-atherogenic effects in human arterial wall.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.