1. Comorbid TNF-mediated heart valve disease and chronic polyarthritis share common mesenchymal cell-mediated aetiopathogenesis
- Author
-
Constantinos Pantos, Niki Karagianni, Maria C Denis, Lydia Ntari, Panagiotis Chouvardas, Alejandro Prados, Iordanis Mourouzis, George Kollias, and Maria Sakkou
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Cardiac function curve ,Male ,Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Immunology ,Heart Valve Diseases ,Arthritis ,Inflammation ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Ventricular Dysfunction, Left ,0302 clinical medicine ,Rheumatology ,Fibrosis ,Immunology and Allergy ,Medicine ,Animals ,Heart valve ,030203 arthritis & rheumatology ,business.industry ,Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ,Mesenchymal Stem Cells ,medicine.disease ,Arthritis, Experimental ,Mice, Mutant Strains ,3. Good health ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor, Type I ,Rheumatoid arthritis ,Aortic Valve ,Chronic Disease ,Mitral Valve ,Tumor necrosis factor alpha ,Polyarthritis ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,business - Abstract
Objectives Patients with rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritisshow higher mortality rates, mainly caused by cardiac comorbidities. The TghuTNF (Tg197) arthritis model develops tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-driven and mesenchymalsynovial fibroblast (SF)-dependent polyarthritis. Here, we investigate whether this model develops, similarly to human patients, comorbid heart pathology and explore cellular and molecular mechanisms linking arthritis to cardiac comorbidities. Methods Histopathological analysis and echocardiographic evaluation of cardiac function were performed in the Tg197 model. Valve interstitial cells (VICs) were targeted by mice carrying the ColVI-Cre transgene. Tg197 ColVI-Cre Tnfr1 fl/fl and Tg197 ColVI-Cre Tnfr1 cneo/cneo mutant mice were used to explore the role of mesenchymal TNF signalling in the development of heart valve disease. Pathogenic VICs and SFs were further analysed by comparative RNA-sequencing analysis. Results Tg197 mice develop left-sided heart valve disease, characterised by valvular fibrosis with minimal signs of inflammation. Thickened valve areas consist almost entirely of hyperproliferative ColVI -expressing mesenchymal VICs. Development of pathology results in valve stenosis and left ventricular dysfunction, accompanied by arrhythmic episodes and, occasionally, valvular regurgitation. TNF dependency of the pathology was indicated by disease modulation following pharmacological inhibition or mesenchymal-specific genetic ablation or activation of TNF/TNFR1 signalling. Tg197-derived VICs exhibited an activated phenotype ex viv o, reminiscent of the activated pathogenic phenotype of Tg197-derived SFs. Significant functional similarities between SFs and VICs were revealed by RNA-seq analysis, demonstrating common cellular mechanisms underlying TNF-mediated arthritides and cardiac comorbidities. Conclusions Comorbidheart valve disease and chronic polyarthritis are efficiently modelled in the Tg197 arthritis model and share common TNF/TNFR1-mediated, mesenchymal cell-specific aetiopathogenic mechanisms.
- Published
- 2017