Exploring the role of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in fibroblast-like synovial cells in rheumatoid arthritis

Xiang Tong; Dongdong Yu; Li Yu; Weiqian Chen; Yanling Wen; Pengcheng Gu

doi:10.7717/peerj.11973

Exploring the role of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in fibroblast-like synovial cells in rheumatoid arthritis

PeerJ. 2021 Aug 11:9:e11973. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11973. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xiang Tong¹, Dongdong Yu¹, Li Yu², Weiqian Chen³, Yanling Wen³, Pengcheng Gu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
² Operating Room, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
³ Department of Rheumatology, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease with persistent synovitis. In the present study, the impact of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) was explored to determine methods for the diagnosis and treatment of RA.

Methods: First, fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) were obtained from a collagen-induced rat RA model. Next, MCP-1-overexpression plasmid and small interfering RNA were transfected into human and rat FLSs. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), Transwell migration and flow cytometry assays were used to analyze cell proliferation, migration and apoptosis of FLSs following MCP-1 transfections, respectively. Furthermore, western blotting was used to analyze the expression levels of p-P38, p-PI3K, PI3K, CD31, VEGF, TNF-α and IL-β in FLSs following MCP-1 transfection. In addition, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and ELISAs were used to analyze the expression levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), estrogen receptor, MCP-1 and pentraxin-3 in patients with clinical RA, followed by correlation analysis of clinical data. Finally, expression validation, diagnostic and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis of MCP-1 were performed.

Results: MCP-1 promoted FLS proliferation and migration, and affected the apoptosis of FLSs. In addition, the expression levels of p-P38, p-PI3K, PI3K, CD31, VEGF, TNF-α and IL-β were also affected by MCP-1. In patients with clinical RA, the expression level of MCP-1 was increased. Moreover, CRP expression level was significantly up-regulated in RA. Clinically, MCP-1 was strongly correlated with tender joint count, swollen joint count, visual analog scale for general health and disease activity score 28 (DAS28)-MCP-1, and was moderately correlated with DAS28 and DAS28-CRP. PPI analysis showed that MCP-1 mainly interacted with other inflammatory cytokines.

Conclusion: In conclusion, MCP-1 may play a significant regulatory role in RA, and could be used as a measurement index of clinical RA activity.

Keywords: Apoptosis; DAS28-MCP-1; Fibroblast-like synoviocytes cells; Migration; Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1; Over-expression; Proliferation; Rheumatoid arthritis; Silence; Western blotting.

Grants and funding

The authors received no funding for this work.