Shear-Induced ITGB4 Promotes Endothelial Cell Inflammation and Atherosclerosis.

The local heterogeneity in the distribution of atherosclerotic lesions is caused by local flow patterns. The integrin family plays crucial regulatory roles in diverse biological processes, but knowledge of integrin β 4 (ITGB4) in shear stress-induced atherosclerosis is limited. This study clarified that low shear stress (LSS) regulates the generation of ITGB4 in endothelial cells with atheroprone phenotype to identify ITGB4's role in atherosclerosis. We found that LSS led to an increase in ITGB4 protein expression both in vitro and in vivo . ITGB4 knockdown attenuated inflammation and ROS generation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and reduced atherosclerotic lesion areas in ApoE ^-/- mice fed with HFD, largely independent of effects on the lipid profile. Mechanistically, ITGB4 knockdown altered the phosphorylation levels of SRC, FAK, and NF κ B in HUVECs under LSS conditions. In addition, the knockdown of NF κ B inhibited the production of ITGB4 and SRC phosphorylation, and the knockdown of SRC downregulated ITGB4 protein expression and NF κ B activation. These data demonstrate a critical role of ITGB4 in atherosclerosis via modulation of endothelial cell inflammation, and ITGB4/SRC/NF κ B might form a positive feedback loop in the regulation of endothelial cell inflammation.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2022 Xiangquan Kong et al.)