Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1998. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1998. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Orientador: Hamilton Almeida Rollo / Resumo: Com o objetivo de avaliar a ocorrência de aneurisma da aorta abdominal infra-renal (AAAIR), estudou-se uma amostra da população masculina do Município de Marília, com idade igual ou acima de 50 anos, no período de 2000 a 2002. Foram avaliados 240 homens por meio da ultrasonografia abdominal (USAb), com média de idade de 65,1 anos (±9,8 anos). A aorta abdominal foi medida no sentido ânteroposterior (AP) e látero-lateral (LL) aproximadamente a 2cm abaixo da artéria mesentérica superior (AMS) e 2cm acima de sua bifurcação. O critério utilizado para considerar aneurisma foi o maior diâmetro encontrado igual ou maior que 3,1cm. Também por questionário, foram avaliados os fatores de risco (tabagismo, sedentarismo, alimentação) e as doenças associadas (HAS, DPOC, IM, DM, AOP ou hiperlipidemia). Nos 240 homens, foram encontrados 11 aneurismas, sendo, portanto, a freqüência de 4,6%. Desses 11 aneurismas, 8 mediam entre 3,1 e 4cm (72,7%) e 3, entre 4,1 e 5cm (27,3%). O maior diâmetro da aorta aneurismática foi de 5 cm (sentido AP a 2cm abaixo da AMS). Foi encontrada uma associação significativa entre aneurisma e AOP e DM, não ocorrendo o mesmo com os demais fatores de risco ou outras doenças associadas. A freqüência de aneurisma encontrada em nossa amostra não foi diferente da referida nos estudos populacionais publicados na literatura, o que mostra a importância da doença em nosso meio, e os indivíduos com AOP e DM têm risco maior de desenvolver a doença. / Abstract: In order to evaluate the occurrence of Infra-Renal Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAAIR), a sample of the male population in the city of Marília aged 50 years or older was studied from 2000 to 2002. A group of 240 men with mean age of 65,1 years (±9,8 years) was evaluated through abdominal ultra-sonography examination. The abdominal aorta was measured in the anteroposterior (AP) and in the latero-lateral directions (LL) approximately 2cm below the superior mesenteric artery and 2cm above its bifurcation. The largest diameter equal or larger than 3.1cm found was the criterion used for aneurysm. Risk factors such as smoking, eating, and exercise habits and associated diseases (systemic arterial hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, myocardial infarction, diabetes mellitus, occlusive peripheral arterial disease, or hyperlipidemia) were also evaluated through questionnaires. Eleven aneurysms were found in the 240 men, which meant a frequency of 4,6%. Out of these 11 aneurysms, 8 measured from 3.1 to 4cm (72,7%) and 3 measured from 4.1 to 5cm (27,3%). The largest diameter of the aneurysmatic aorta was 5cm (AP direction approximately 2cm of the superior mesenteric artery). A significant association between aneurysm and peripheral vascular disease and diabetes mellitus was found. The same did not occur with the other risk factors or other associated diseases. The frequency of aneurysm found in our sample was not different from the frequency mentioned in population studies published in the literature, which shows the importance of the disease in our environment and that patients with peripheral vascular disease and diabetes mellitus have a higher risk to develop the disease. / Mestre

No / Vascular inflammation is implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), and is thought to involve reactive species such as the nitric oxide-derived oxidant peroxynitrite. In the present study nitrotyrosine was measured as a stable marker of peroxynitrite production in vivo. Perioperative blood samples were obtained from patients undergoing elective open or endovascular repair of an AAA and from patients with intermittent claudication, smoking aged-matched controls, non-smoking aged-matched controls and non-smoking young healthy controls. Plasma nitrotyrosine was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The median plasma nitrotyrosine concentration in patients with an AAA (0·46 nmol nitrated bovine serum albumin equivalents per mg protein) was significantly higher than that in patients with intermittent claudication (0·35 nmol; P = 0·002), smoking controls (0·36 nmol; P = 0·001), non-smoking controls (0·35 nmol; P = 0·002) and young healthy controls (0·27 nmol; P < 0·001). Nitrotyrosine concentrations increased during early reperfusion in open AAA repair, but not during endovascular repair. AAA exclusion from the circulation reduced levels to control values (P = 0·001). Patients with an AAA had raised levels of circulating nitrated proteins compared with patients with claudication and controls, suggesting a greater degree of ongoing inflammation that was not related to smoking. Copyright

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2005. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

The current study focuses on finding differential expression between circulating microRNAs in plasma from patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms compared to un-diseased individuals by using a qPCR-based array. In addition, we evaluated the expression of deregulated microRNAs in human tissue samples as well as microarray data from two independent mouse models of aneurysm development. Fifteen miRNAs were found to be significantly differentially expressed, with four of them surviving multiple testing. Interestingly all four of them were substantially different in murine aneurysm development.

Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2, gelatinase A, type IV collagenase) is a member of a family of zinc-dependent metalloendopeptidases that functions in the degradation of elastin, collagens, and other components of extracellular matrix (ECM). Both secretion and activation of MMP-2 are elevated in human atherosclerotic lesions and abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). In this dissertation project, we sought to test the hypothesis that MMP-2 plays a critical role in both atherosclerosis and AAA. We also sought to determine the detailed mechanism. We first examined the atherosclerosis and AngII-induced AAAs development in MMP-2-/- x apolipoprotein (apoE)-/- mice in vivo. It was surprising that MMP-2 deficiency did not reduce the incidence of AngII-induced AAAs or the size of atherosclerosis in apoE-/- mice. However, the cellular and ECM content of atherosclerotic plaques were modified in MMP-2-/- x apoE-/- mice as compared to MMP-2+/+ x apoE-/- control mice. To explain the apparent paradox between this result and the hypothesis, we investigated the morphological characteristics of the aortic wall of MMP-2-/- mice. We detected an enhanced MMP-9 level in the aortic wall of MMP-2-/- x apoE-/- mice compared with MMP-2+/+ x apoE-/- mice. Interestingly, we also observed more branching of the elastin fibers in aortic wall of MMP-2-/- mice as compared with aorta of wild type mice. We also examined the behavior of macrophages from MMP-2-/- mice. Reduced adhesion, migration, and expression of integrin beta 3 were detected in MMP-2 deficient macrophages compared with wild type macrophages. Lastly, we examined whether MMP-2 deficiency in bone marrow-derived cells may influence AAAs and atherosclerosis using bone marrow transplantation technique. There was a significant reduction of both atherosclerosis development and AAAs formation in mice that were reconstituted MMP-2-/- bone marrow cells. In conclusion, the findings in this dissertation suggest that MMP-2 might play an important role in atherosclerosis and aneurysm through influencing inflammatory cell infiltration.

Summary of the work Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a chronic degenerative disease that usually affects men over 65 years with an estimated prevalence of 5%. Aneurysm rupture represents a catastrophic event which carries a mortality rate of almost 90%. Current therapeutic options for AAAs measuring 5.5 cm in diameter or larger are based on prophylactic surgery, including conventional open reconstruction and endovascular stent-graft insertion. For patients with small asymptomatic AAAs (4.0 up to 5.5 cm in diameter), evidence from two recent large randomized controlled trials indicates no long-term survival benefit from immediate elective surgical repair as compared to imaging surveillance until aneurysm expands to 5.5 cm. This highlights the need for development of novel medical management strategies, including selective pharmacologic approaches, directed at preventing aneurysm expansion. In this regard, it is expected that a detailed knowledge of the pathobiology of human AAA lesion and a better understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms underlying initiation and progression of aneurysmal degeneration, particularly the specific involvement of T lymphocytes, will have special relevance to this challenging issue. Inflammatory and helper T-cell responses in abdominal aortic aneurysm : controversial issues Innate and inflammatory responses to endovascular versus open AAA repair. The occurrence of early acute systemic inflammatory responses after conventional open AAA repair is widely recognized and is thought to lead to the development of organ dysfunction and multiple organ failure, responsible for a large proportion of morbidity and mortality associated with aortic surgery. New therapeutic strategies designed to avoid ischemia-reperfusion injury related to aortic cross-clamping and to minimize the degree of tissue damage have thus been developed recently. Specifically, the advent of endovascular techniques has radically extended management options for patients with AAA. Although the method is believed to offer a clear short-term benefit over open repair, notably as regards restricted perioperative haemodynamic parameter fluctuations, reduced blood loss, briefer duration of surgery, shorter hospital stay, and lower 30-day mortality and complication rates, conflicting data are available regarding the exact nature and extent of the inflammatory events arising after such endoluminal procedures ; while several authors have indeed reported that endovascular AAA repair can determine a less intense and extensive inflammatory response, others have unexpectedly observed that the method may elicit a strong inflammatory response, the so-called « postimplantation syndrome ». Adaptive cellular immune responses in human aneurysmal aortic lesion. The inflammatory nature of AAA disease has long been suggested by the presence of a great number of CD4+ T lymphocytes in the outer media and adventitia of human AAA lesion. Interestingly, such infiltrating T-cell populations may have significant implications in the process of aneurysm dilation, since cytokines produced by T cells, notably IFN-gamma, have previously been shown to modulate production of matrix-degrading enzymes by resident macrophages and to induce apoptosis of medial SMCs. Through these key pathological mechanisms, T cells could potentially contribute to orchestrate aortic wall connective tissue disordered remodeling and degradation, and promote extensive disruption of elastic media, ultimately leading to aneurysmal degeneration. Nevertheless, despite their relative abundance in human AAA wall tissues, there is limited and controversial information as regards the functional profile of lesional lymphocytes, the exact nature of aortic wall adaptive cellular responses, and the etiologic role of T cells and their cytokines in initiation and progression of the aneurysmal process. Indeed, both Th1-type and Th2-type responses have been identified in human studies and experimental animal models of AAA. Aims of the work The main objectives of our work were to explore the innate and adaptive cellular immune responses in human AAA. In the first part of our work, we aimed to examine prospectively innate and inflammatory responses arising in a non-randomised cohort of patients undergoing endovascular versus open AAA repair. In the second part of our work, we focused our efforts on characterizing the nature of adaptive cellular immune responses and the phenotypic and functional repertoire of T cells in human AAA wall tissues obtained from a consecutive series of patients undergoing open AAA repair. Specifically, we sought to determine whether type 1 or type 2 responses occur predominantly in advanced AAA lesion. Main experimental findings Limited inflammatory response after endovascular AAA repair. Serial peripheral venous blood samples were collected preoperatively, immediately after declamping or insertion of endograft, and after 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours. We first examined the acute phase reaction and liberation of complement cascade products using turbidimetric method and nephelometry. We found that endovascular repair produced lower postoperative CRP, leucocytosis, neutrophilia, and C3d/C3 ratio as compared to open surgery. We next analyzed surface expression of activation markers on peripheral CD3+ T cells using flow cytometry. We observed a strong upregulation of CD38 after open but not endovascular repair. Analysis of CD69 and CD25 molecules revealed no perioperative fluctuations in any group. We then investigated release of various circulating soluble cell adhesion molecules, proinflammatory cytokines, and chemokines using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. We demonstrated that both procedures are characterized by similar increases in ICAM-1 and IL-6 levels. Finally, tendency towards high levels of TNF-alpha and IL-8 was detected in endovascular repair, but data failed to reach statistical significance. Predominance of type 1 CD4+ T cells in human aneurysmal aortic lesion. We have developed a tissue enzymatic digestion and cell extraction procedure to isolate intact mononuclear cells from aortic wall segments. This original cell isolation protocol enabled us to examine ex vivo the presence, phenotype, and cytokine secretion profile of infiltrating T lymphocytes freshly isolated from human AAA tissues for comparison with their circulating counterparts using flow cytometry. We found that both populations of infiltrating CD4+ and CD8+ T cells display a unique activated memory phenotype, as assessed by an increased expression of CD69 and HLA-DR activation antigens, downregulation of CD62L molecule, and predominant expression of the CD45RO isoform characteristics of memory cells. In addition, we identified the presence in human aneurysmal aortic wall lesion of CD4+ T cells producing high levels of IFN-gamma but not IL-4, reflecting their type 1 nature. In an additional series of experiments, cytokine gene expression was determined in whole aneurysmal and non-diseased aortic samples using LightCycler-based quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The molecular basis of type 1 or type 2 dominant responses was further specified by analyzing mRNA levels of transcription factors specifically involved in Th1 or Th2 differentiation such as T-bet and GATA-3. We demonstrated that aneurysmal aortic specimens exhibit high transcript levels of IFN-gamma but not IL-4, and consistently overexpressed the IFN-g-promoting cytokine IL-12 and the type 1-restricted transcription factor T-bet, further establishing the prominent type 1 nature of aortic wall responses. Moreover, such selective tissue expression of IL-12 and T-bet in the vessel microenvironment points to a potential role for these signals in directing aortic wall responses towards a type 1 phenotype. Conclusions Our findings indicate that endovascular AAA repair is associated with a lesser degree of acute phase reaction, peripheral T-cell activation, and release of complement proteins as compared to conventional open surgery, suggesting that the innate and inflammatory responses to AAA repair are significantly attenuated by the endovascular approach as compared to the traditional open reconstruction. These results support the view that the endoluminal procedure represents an attractive alternative to open surgery for the treatment of large aneurysms. On the other hand, we have demonstrated that Th1 cell infiltrates predominate in human end-stage AAA lesion. These observations are relevant for helping clarify the pathobiology of human AAA tissues and defining prospects for the prevention of aneurysm expansion. Indeed, identification of such infiltrating populations of IFN-gamma-producing CD4+ T cells not only provide new insights into the pathogenesis of the disorder, but could also serve as a basis for the development of novel medical management strategies directed at preventing aneurysm formation and progression, including therapeutic approaches based on the modulation of aortic wall responses and designed to selectively target T-cell activation and cytokine production. In this respect, the present work provides experimental evidence in support of the emerging concept that, although multifactorial, aneurysm disease may be regarded as a Th1-driven immunopathological condition, and suggests that strategies targeting IFN-gamma could be a particularly exciting and fruitful avenue for further investigation. Ongoing clinical and basic research in these areas can be expected to yield design of promising pharmacologic approaches to control AAA expansion. From a clinical perspective, such efforts have the potential to dramatically influence both the outcome and management of this common and life threatening condition.

OBJECTIVES: The association between bicuspid aortic valves and aortic aneurysms has been well documented. In order to better understand this association, this study sought to accomplish two goals. The first was to determine if there was any correlation between specific bicuspid aortic valve phenotypes and aortic aneurysms. The second goal was to determine if the association between bicuspid aortic valve disease and aortic aneurysms has a genetic or hemodynamic cause. METHODS: For the non-genetic portion of the study, we used echocardiogram and surgical records to classify the phenotypes of the aortic valve and the aorta of 434 patients. We then evaluated the correlation between valve morphotype and aortic aneurysm phenotype. For the genetic portion, we used a genome wide association study on 452 patients to find genes that could potentially be responsible for aortic aneurysms. These were then compared with genes suspected of causing bicuspid aortic valve to determine if there is a common genetic link between the two disorders. RESULTS: We observed a significant association between bicuspid aortic valve and aortic aneurysms; however we did not find any significant association between the different bicuspid aortic valve phenotypes and aortic aneurysm phenotypes. For the genome wide association study, we identified genes that could potentially be responsible for causing aortic aneurysms; however, none of the suspected markers were considered statistically significant. Also none of the identified genes matched to the genes suspected of causing bicuspid aortic valve. CONCLUSION: While the results were not as expected, the study provided us with information to better understand the relationship between bicuspid aortic valves and aortic aneurysms. According to the results of the current study, patients with bicuspid aortic valve are more likely to develop an aortic aneurysm but specific phenotype has no effect on where the aneurysm occurs in the aorta. The increased frequency of aortic aneurysms in bicuspid valve patients is most probably due to a combination of altered hemodynamics and genetic effects. In order for this information to be useful in the clinical setting, the methods of this study should be repeated in a larger cohort to make sure the results are accurate.

BACKGROUND: It is well established that thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) and abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) have different risk factors, clinical features, and genetic influences. Differences between and amongst subtypes of TAAs have received less attention. Despite observations of divergent clinical outcomes between ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms (ATAAs) and descending thoracic aortic aneurysms (DTAAs), etiologic factors determining the anatomic distribution of these aneurysms are not well understood. METHODS: From 3,247 patients registered in an institutional Thoracic Aortic Center Database from July 1992 through August 2013, we identified 921 patients with full aortic dimensional imaging by CT or MRI scan with TAA > 3.5 cm and without evidence of aortic dissection (AoD). Patients were analyzed in three groups: isolated ATAA (n=677), isolated DTAA (n=97), and combined ATAA and DTAA (n=146). RESULTS: Patients with a DTAA, alone or with coexistent ATAA, had significantly more hypertension (80.6% vs. 61.8%, p<.001) and a higher burden of atherosclerotic disease ( 86.7% vs. 7.5%, p<.001) ) and were more likely to be female (59.3% vs. 29.5%, P<.001). Conversely, patients with isolated ATAA were significantly younger (average age 59.5 vs. 71, p<.001), and contained almost every case of overt genetically-triggered TAA. Patients with isolated DTAA were demographically indistinguishable from patients with combined ATAA and DTAA. In follow up, patients with isolated DTAA, or with ATAA and DTAA, experienced significantly more aortic events (aortic dissection/rupture) and had higher mortality than patients with isolated ATAA. CONCLUSIONS: Based on patient characteristics and outcomes, subtypes of TAA emerge. DTAA with or without associated ATAA or AAA appears to be a disease more highly associated with atherosclerosis, hypertension, and advanced age. In contrast, isolated ATAA appears to be a clinically distinct entity with a higher burden of genetically triggered disease. These data have important implications for familial screening recommendations for TAA.