Cilia proteins are biomarkers of altered flow in the vasculature. JCI Insight 2022 Mar 22;7(6)
Date
02/11/2022Pubmed ID
35143420Pubmed Central ID
PMC8986075DOI
10.1172/jci.insight.151813Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85127051401 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 3 CitationsAbstract
Cilia, microtubule-based organelles that project from the apical luminal surface of endothelial cells (ECs), are widely regarded as low-flow sensors. Previous reports suggest that upon high shear stress, cilia on the EC surface are lost, and more recent evidence suggests that deciliation-the physical removal of cilia from the cell surface-is a predominant mechanism for cilia loss in mammalian cells. Thus, we hypothesized that EC deciliation facilitated by changes in shear stress would manifest in increased abundance of cilia-related proteins in circulation. To test this hypothesis, we performed shear stress experiments that mimicked flow conditions from low to high shear stress in human primary cells and a zebrafish model system. In the primary cells, we showed that upon shear stress induction, indeed, ciliary fragments were observed in the effluent in vitro, and effluents contained ciliary proteins normally expressed in both endothelial and epithelial cells. In zebrafish, upon shear stress induction, fewer cilia-expressing ECs were observed. To test the translational relevance of these findings, we investigated our hypothesis using patient blood samples from sickle cell disease and found that plasma levels of ciliary proteins were elevated compared with healthy controls. Further, sickled red blood cells demonstrated high levels of ciliary protein (ARL13b) on their surface after adhesion to brain ECs. Brain ECs postinteraction with sickle RBCs showed high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Attenuating ROS levels in brain ECs decreased cilia protein levels on RBCs and rescued ciliary protein levels in brain ECs. Collectively, these data suggest that cilia and ciliary proteins in circulation are detectable under various altered-flow conditions, which could serve as a surrogate biomarker of the damaged endothelium.
Author List
Gupta A, Thirugnanam K, Thamilarasan M, Mohieldin AM, Zedan HT, Prabhudesai S, Griffin MR, Spearman AD, Pan A, Palecek SP, Yalcin HC, Nauli SM, Rarick KR, Zennadi R, Ramchandran RAuthors
Amy Y. Pan PhD Associate Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of WisconsinRamani Ramchandran PhD Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Kevin Richard Rarick PhD Assistant Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Andrew Spearman MD Assistant Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Karthikeyan Thirugnanam PhD Postdoctoral Fellow in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AnimalsBiomarkers
Cilia
Endothelial Cells
Humans
Mammals
Proteins
Reactive Oxygen Species
Zebrafish
