MCP-1 released by smooth muscle and endothelial cells promotes the recruitment of monocytes and macrophages to the subendothelial cell layer. Deposition of lipids within these monocytes and macrophages then leads to development of atherosclerotic lesions.
This is one of the 1st studies to demonstrate the effect of red blood cells on the disease and could also affect the way patients with other health conditions, like cancer, who are prone to developing cardiovascular issues, are diagnosed and treated. “White blood cells play a key role in fueling adipose tissue (fat) inflammation and insulin resistance in obesity and also promote the clogging of arteries, or atherosclerosis, setting the stage for heart attack and stroke. While these outcomes linked with a high fat diet and fat in the blood on white blood cells have been shown in animal models and humans, the impact of high fat diets on other bone marrow-derived cells, like red blood cells, is not well defined.
“Evidence is emerging that red blood cells play an important regulatory role in the development of atherosclerosis, binding pro-inflammatory proteins that cause dysfunction in the inner lining of the blood vessel wall – the endothelium. We explored how a high fat-diet causes red blood cell dysfunction in this study.”
Bogdanov and his team fed a 60% high-fat diet to a group of animal models for 12 weeks and saw an increased amount of key proteins that stimulate Macrophages bound to red blood cells. “In red blood cells from animal models fed a high-fat diet, there was an increase in cholesterol found in the cell membrane and phosphatidylserine levels, promoting inflammatory reactions. Phosphatidylserine is a phospholipid membrane component which plays a key role in the cycle of cells,” Bogdanov says. “When red blood cells from the animals being fed the high-fat diet were injected into a control group, eating a normal diet, there was a 3X increase in their spleens’ uptake of red blood cells.
“All of these findings show that the dysfunction of red blood cells, corresponding with dysfunction of the lining of blood vessels, occurs very early in diet-induced obesity and may play a part in the formation of atherosclerosis. Diets high in saturated fat have long been associated with endothelial dysfunction, the precursor to atherosclerosis, but to our knowledge, the effects of high-fat diet on red blood cells have not been rigorously examined.”
He adds that in humans, high cholesterol is associated with alterations in red blood cells which are improved by treatment with statins, but the majority of obese humans do not have severe high cholesterol as was the case with the animal models in the study. These findings may also help patients with cancer who are frequently prone to thrombosis (blood clots). http://www.healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/26864
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