Abstract 091: High Salt Promotes Conversion of Human Monocytes Into Dendritic Cells via Formation of Immunogenic Isoketals

High salt intake and inflammation are implicated in the genesis of hypertension. Recently it has become clear that sodium can accumulate in the interstitial space in concentrations exceeding that of the plasma, and that these high salt (HS) concentrations can be pro-inflammatory. Our laboratory recently published a new pathway in which increased oxidative stress in dendritic cells (DCs) leads to formation of isoketal-modified proteins which act as neo-antigens to activate T cells. We hypothesized that increasing sodium chloride (NaCl) in excess activates antigen presenting cells via formation of immunogenic isoketals. We exposed monocytes from human volunteers to normal physiological NaCl (NS: 150 mM/L), elevated NaCl concentrations (HS: 190 mM/L), or an equiosmoloar concentration of mannitol. We found that exposure of human monocytes to high salt, but not mannitol, caused a 2-fold increase in formation of isoketal-modified proteins. This was associated with an increase in activation marker CD86 (NS: 466 ± 192 vs HS: 596 ± 324 MFI p