Cardiovascular changes in the NZB/W F1 mouse model of lupus nephritis

Romy Böhme; Christoph Daniel; Fulvia Ferrazzi; Miriam Angeloni; Arif Bülent Ekici; Thomas H Winkler; Karl-Friedrich Hilgers; Ute Wellmann; Reinhard E Voll; Kerstin Amann

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2023.1182193

Cardiovascular changes in the NZB/W F1 mouse model of lupus nephritis

Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023 Jul 24:10:1182193. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2023.1182193. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nephropathology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
² Institute of Pathology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
³ Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
⁴ Divison of Genetics, Department of Biology, Nikolaus-Fiebiger-Center of Molecular Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
⁵ Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
⁶ Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease, have a higher risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease and death. In addition, up to 40%-50% of SLE patients develop lupus nephritis (LN) and chronic kidney disease, which is an additional CV risk factor. Thus, the individual contributions of LN and other SLE-specific factors to CV events are unclear.

Methods: In this study, we investigated the effect of LN on the development of CV changes using the female NZBxNZW F1 (NZB/W) mouse model of lupus-like disease, with female NZW mice as controls. Standard serologic, morphologic, immunohistologic, and molecular analyses were performed. In a separate group of NZB/W mice, systolic blood pressure (BP) was measured during the course of the disease using tail plethysmography.

Results: Our data show marked CV changes in NZB/W mice, i.e., increased heart weight, hypertrophy of the left ventricle (LV) and septum, and increased wall thickness of the intramyocardial arteries and the aorta, which correlated with the progression of renal damage, but not with the age of the mice. In addition, systolic BP was increased in NZB/W mice only when kidney damage progressed and proteinuria was present. Pathway analysis based on gene expression data revealed a significant upregulation of the response to interferon beta in NZB/W mice with moderate kidney injury compared with NZB mice. Furthermore, IFI202b and IL-6 mRNA expression is correlated with CV changes. Multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated serum urea as a surrogate marker of kidney function and IFI202b expression as an independent predictor for LV wall thickness. In addition, deposition of complement factors CFD and C3c in hearts from NZB/W mice was seen, which correlated with the severity of kidney disease.

Conclusions: Thus, we postulate that the pathogenesis of CV disease in SLE is affected by renal impairment, i.e., LN, but it can also be partly influenced by lupus-specific cardiac expression of pro-inflammatory factors and complement deposition.

Keywords: IL-15; autoimmune disease; cardiovascular disease; interferon-related; renal disease; systemic lupus erythematosus.

Grants and funding

The study was supported by the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF, project No. A11) and the DFG (Am 93/12-1, HI 510/10-1 and Project-ID 509149993, TRR 374 INF1). We acknowledge the financial support from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Friedrich–Alexander–Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg within the funding program “Open Access Publication Funding.”