Modulation of Macrophage Activation State Protects Tissue from Necrosis during Critical Limb Ischemia in Thrombospondin-1-Deficient Mice

International audienceBACKGROUND: Macrophages, key regulators of healing/regeneration processes, strongly infiltrate ischemic tissues from patients suffering from critical limb ischemia (CLI). However pro-inflammatory markers correlate with disease progression and risk of amputation, suggesting that modulating macrophage activation state might be beneficial. We previously reported that thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) is highly expressed in ischemic tissues during CLI in humans. TSP-1 is a matricellular protein that displays well-known angiostatic properties in cancer, and regulates inflammation in vivo and macrophages properties in vitro. We therefore sought to investigate its function in a mouse model of CLI. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using a genetic model of tsp-1(-/-) mice subjected to femoral artery excision, we report that tsp-1(-/-) mice were clinically and histologically protected from necrosis compared to controls. Tissue protection was associated with increased postischemic angiogenesis and muscle regeneration. We next showed that macrophages present in ischemic tissues exhibited distinct phenotypes in tsp-1(-/-) and wt mice. A strong reduction of necrotic myofibers phagocytosis was observed in tsp-1(-/-) mice. We next demonstrated that phagocytosis of muscle cell debris is a potent pro-inflammatory signal for macrophages in vitro. Consistently with these findings, macrophages that infiltrated ischemic tissues exhibited a reduced postischemic pro-inflammatory activation state in tsp-1(-/-) mice, characterized by a reduced Ly-6C expression and a less pro-inflammatory cytokine expression profile. Finally, we showed that monocyte depletion reversed clinical and histological protection from necrosis observed in tsp-1(-/-) mice, thereby demonstrating that macrophages mediated tissue protection in these mice. CONCLUSION: This study defines targeting postischemic macrophage activation state as a new potential therapeutic approach to protect tissues from necrosis and promote tissue repair during CLI. Furthermore, our data suggest that phagocytosis plays a crucial role in promoting a deleterious intra-tissular pro-inflammatory macrophage activation state during critical injuries. Finally, our results describe TSP-1 as a new relevant physiological target during critical leg ischemia

Role des histone variants dans la dynamique de la chromatine

Higher organisms are eukaryotes; they package their DNA inside cells in a separate compartment called the nucleus. The chromatin complex of DNA and protein can be seen as individual compact chromosomes. The chromatin represents the second level in the compaction of DNA. The chromatin is a variable and dynamic structure which is due to the compaction of nucleosomes. The nucleosome is the base unit of the chromatin. This nucleoproteique structure impedes the access to the DNA for the multiprotéique complexes. Some factors remodel the chromatin, modify covalently histones, replace canonical histones by histone variants or participate to assembly of nucleosomes. During this study, we have studied two variants: macroH2A and H2A.Bbd. These variants are incorporated in the nucleosomal particle and replace the canonical histone H2A. Their presence creates a nucleosome wich have a structure, an organization and specific caracteristics. MacroH2A and H2A.Bbd inhibits the action of remodeling factors SWI/SNF and ACF. On the other hand, H2A.Bbd dissociates the different mecanisms of the complexe SWI/SNF. The in vitro experiments allow us to show that the variant macroH2A inhibits the transcription via the macro domain and that the variant H2A.Bbd activates the transcription. In the same way, we show that macroH2A inhibits acetylation of histones and that H2A.Bbd stimulates this phenomenon. The variant H2A.Bbd is associated to active area for transcription, the variant macroH2A to inactive area for transcription.Dans le noyau des cellules eucaryotes, l'ADN est compacté sous forme de chromosome, ultime forme de compaction. La chromatine est le second niveau d'organisation de l'ADN. C'est une structure variable et dynamique elle-même issue de la compaction de chapelets de nucléosomes. Le nucléosome est donc l'unité de base de la chromatine. Cette structure nucléoprotéique sert de barrière empêchant l'accès de complexes protéiques à l'ADN. Différents facteurs protéiques remodèlent la chromatine, modifient les histones de manière covalente, remplacent les histones canoniques par des variants d'histones ou participent à l'assemblage des nucléosomes. Lors de ce travail de thèse, nous avons travaillé sur deux variants : macroH2A et H2A.Bbd. Ces variants s'incorporent dans une particule nucléosomale et remplacent l'histone canonique H2A. Leur présence crée un nucléosome possédant une structure, une organisation et des caractéristiques particulières. Ainsi la présence de l'un ou l'autre de ces deux variants au sein d'une particule nucléosomale inhibent l'action des facteurs de remodelage SWI/SNF et ACF. Par contre, le variant H2A.Bbd permet de dissocier les différents mécanismes d'action du complexe SWI/SNF. Des expériences de transcription in vitro nous permettent de montrer que le variant macroH2A inhibe la transcription grâce à son domaine macro tandis que le variant H2A.Bbd active la transcription. De la même façon nous montrons que la présence de macroH2A inhibe l'acétylation des histones alors que H2A.Bbd stimule ce phénomène. Le variant H2A.Bbd est associé à des zones actives en transcription, le variant macroH2A à des zones inactives en transcription

A Testis-Specific Chaperone and the Chromatin Remodeler ISWI Mediate Repackaging of the Paternal Genome

During spermatogenesis, the paternal genome is repackaged into a non-nucleosomal, highly compacted chromatin structure. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that Drosophila sperm chromatin proteins are characterized by a motif related to the high-mobility group (HMG) box, which we termed male-specific transcript (MST)-HMG box. MST77F is a MST-HMG-box protein that forms an essential component of sperm chromatin. The deposition of MST77F onto the paternal genome requires the chaperone function of tNAP, a testis-specific NAP protein. MST77F, in turn, enables the stable incorporation of MST35Ba and MST35Bb into sperm chromatin. Following MST-HMG-box protein deposition, the ATP-dependent chromatin remodeler ISWI mediates the appropriate organization of sperm chromatin. Conversely, at fertilization, maternal ISWI targets the paternal genome and drives its repackaging into de-condensed nucleosomal chromatin. Failure of this transition in ISWI mutant embryos is followed by mitotic defects, aneuploidy, and haploid embryonic divisions. Thus, ISWI enables bi-directional transitions between two fundamentally different forms of chromatin

Mechanism of Polymerase II Transcription Repression by the Histone Variant macroH2A

macroH2A (mH2A) is an unusual histone variant consisting of a histone H2A-like domain fused to a large nonhistone region. In this work, we show that histone mH2A represses p300- and Gal4-VP16-dependent polymerase II transcription, and we have dissected the mechanism by which this repression is realized. The repressive effect of mH2A is observed at the level of initiation but not at elongation of transcription, and mH2A interferes with p300-dependent histone acetylation. The nonhistone region of mH2A is responsible for both the repression of initiation of transcription and the inhibition of histone acetylation. In addition, the presence of this domain of mH2A within the nucleosome is able to block nucleosome remodeling and sliding of the histone octamer to neighboring DNA segments by the remodelers SWI/SNF and ACF. These data unambiguously identify mH2A as a strong transcriptional repressor and show that the repressive effect of mH2A is realized on at least two different transcription activation chromatin-dependent pathways: histone acetylation and nucleosome remodeling