Background: Erythrocytes (red blood cells) participate in the control of vascular NO bioavailability. The purpose of this study was to determine whether and how genetic deletion of ARG1 (arginase-1) affects vascular smooth muscle cell NO signaling, osteoblastic differentiation, and atherosclerotic lesion calcification.
Methods: Atherosclerosis-prone mice with conditional, erythrocyte-restricted deletion of ARG1 (apoE-/- red blood cell.ARG1 knockout) were generated and vascular calcification studied using molecular imaging of the osteogenic activity agent OsteoSense, Alizarin staining or immunohistochemistry, qPCR of osteogenic markers and ex vivo assays.
Results: Atherosclerotic lesion size at the aortic root did not differ, but calcification was significantly more pronounced in apoE-/- mice lacking erythrocyte ARG1. Incubation of murine and human VSMCs with lysed erythrocyte membranes from apoE-/- red blood cell. ARG1-knockout mice accelerated their osteogenic differentiation, and mRNA transcripts of osteogenic markers decreased following NO scavenging. In addition to NO signaling via sGC (soluble guanylyl cyclase), overexpression of GSNOR (S-nitrosoglutathione reductase) enhanced degradation of S-nitrosoglutathione to glutathione and reduced protein S-nitrosation of HSP (heat shock protein)-70 were identified as potential mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle cell calcification in mice lacking ARG1 in erythrocytes, and calcium phosphate deposition was enhanced by heat shock and prevented by GSNOR inhibition. Messenger RNA levels of enzymes metabolizing the arginase products L-ornithine and L-proline also were elevated in VSMCs, paralleled by increased proliferation, myofibroblast marker and collagen type 1 expression.
Conclusions: Our findings support an important role of erythrocyte ARG1 for NO bioavailability and L-arginine metabolism in VSMCs, which controls atherosclerotic lesion composition and calcification.
Keywords: arginase-1; atherosclerosis; erythrocytes; mouse model; vascular calcification.