Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, features liver sinusoidal endothelial cell (LSEC) alterations with ill-defined driving factors. Zinc-Finger E-Box-binding Homeobox (ZEB)2 in LSECs preserves their specialized features, prevents capillarization and protects against liver fibrosis. To investigate a potential protective role against steatosis, the initial MASLD stage, we fed EC-specific Zeb2 knockout (EC) mice a western-type diet (WD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol
July 2025
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a chronic syndrome driven by systemic inflammation. Resident and monocyte-derived macrophages play opposing roles in several heart diseases. Though general ablation of macrophages has previously been studied in HFpEF, the individual contribution of these subsets to HFpEF development is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Extracellular traps formed by neutrophils (NETs) and eosinophils (EETs) have been described in coronary thrombi, contributing to thrombus stability. A key mechanism during NET formation is histone modification by the enzyme PAD4. Citrullinated histones, the product of PAD4 activity, are often attributed to neutrophils.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhilos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
November 2023
Mice fully deficient in peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4) enzyme have preserved cardiac function and reduced collagen deposition during ageing. The cellular source of PAD4 is hypothesized to be neutrophils, likely due to PAD4's involvement in neutrophil extracellular trap release. We investigated haematopoietic PAD4 impact on myocardial remodelling and systemic inflammation in cardiac ageing by generating mice with deletion in circulating neutrophils under the MRP8 promoter (Ne-PAD4), and ageing them for 2 years together with littermate controls (PAD4).
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