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Distinct immune microenvironments in atherosclerotic plaques

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 17, page 7 (2020)Cite this article

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Although immune mechanisms are known to drive progression of atherosclerosis, the immune responses that occur in the plaque are poorly understood. A new study now shows that T cells are the predominant immune cell type in carotid artery plaques from patients with cerebrovascular disease and that plaque macrophages have differentially activated phenotypes. “Plaque cells display not just distinct enrichments compared with blood of the same patient, but they show a functional specialization to the plaque niche,” explains Chiara Giannarelli, lead investigator of the study.

The research team mapped and assessed the immune composition of atherosclerotic plaques from 46 patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. Mass cytometry (CyTOF) analyses showed that T cells were the most abundant immune cells in the plaques. Plaque T cells were highly heterogeneous and had a chronically activated and differentiated phenotype compared with T cells in blood samples from the same patient. Furthermore, some plaque T cell subsets had markers of T cell exhaustion. T cell subsets were also analysed with cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes by sequencing (CITE-seq), a technique that incorporates proteomic and transcriptomic data into a single readout. Consistent with the CyTOF results, T cells were found to be the predominant immune cell type in the plaque, and CD8+ T cells were enriched in the plaque compared with blood. Furthermore, plaque T cells had transcriptional profiles associated with T cell activation, exhaustion and cytotoxicity compared with blood T cells, which expressed genes associated with inhibition of T cell function.

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References

Original article

  • Fernandez, D. M. et al. Single-cell immune landscape of human atherosclerotic plaques. Nat. Med. 25, 1576–1588 (2019)

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  1. Nature Reviews Cardiology http://www.nature.com/nrcardio/

    Karina Huynh

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  1. Karina Huynh
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Correspondence to Karina Huynh.

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Huynh, K. Distinct immune microenvironments in atherosclerotic plaques. Nat Rev Cardiol 17, 7 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-019-0304-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-019-0304-0

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