Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-24-2024
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Nur77 belongs to the member of orphan nuclear receptor 4A family that plays critical roles in maintaining vascular homeostasis. This study aims to determine whether Nur77 plays a role in attenuating vascular dysfunction, and if so, to determine the molecular mechanisms involved.
METHODS: Both Nur77 knockout (Nur77 KO) and Nur77 endothelial specific transgenic mice (Nur77-Tg) were employed to examine the functional significance of Nur77 in vascular endothelium in vivo. Endothelium-dependent vasodilatation to acetylcholine (Ach) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was determined under inflammatory and high glucose conditions. Expression of genes was determined by real-time PCR and western blot analysis.
RESULTS: In response to tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) treatment and diabetes, the endothelium-dependent vasodilatation to Ach was significantly impaired in aorta from Nur77 KO as compared with those from the wild-type (WT) mice. Endothelial specific overexpression of Nur77 markedly prevented both TNF-α- and high glucose-induced endothelial dysfunction. Compared with WT mice, after TNF-α and high glucose treatment, ROS production in aorta was significantly increased in Nur77 KO mice, but it was inhibited in Nur77-Tg mice, as determined by dihydroethidium (DHE) staining. Furthermore, we demonstrated that Nur77 overexpression substantially increased the expression of several key enzymes involved in nitric oxide (NO) production and ROS scavenging, including endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), guanosine triphosphate cyclohydrolase 1 (GCH-1), glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPx-1), and superoxide dismutases (SODs). Mechanistically, we found that Nur77 increased GCH1 mRNA stability by inhibiting the expression of microRNA-133a, while Nur77 upregulated SOD1 expression through directly binding to the human SOD1 promoter in vascular endothelial cells.
CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that Nur77 plays an essential role in attenuating endothelial dysfunction through activating NO production and anti-oxidant pathways in vascular endothelium. Targeted activation of Nur77 may provide a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases associated with endothelial dysfunction.
Recommended Citation
Lu, Lin; Jang, Soohwa; Zhu, Jiaqi; Qin, Qing; Sun, Lijun; and Sun, Jianxin, "Nur77 Mitigates Endothelial Dysfunction Through Activation of Both Nitric Oxide Production and Anti-Oxidant Pathways" (2024). Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers. Paper 119.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/transmedfp/119
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
PubMed ID
38290383
Language
English
Comments
This article is the author's final published version in Redox Biology, Volume 70, 2024, Article number 103056.
The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2024.103056.
Copyright © 2024 The Authors.