Arteriosclerosis and Thrombosis, Vol 13, 1631-1639, Copyright © 1993 by American Heart Association

ARTICLES

Cytokeratins 8 and 18 in smooth muscle cells. Detection in human coronary artery, peripheral vascular, and vein graft disease and in transplantation-associated arteriosclerosis

L Jahn, J Kreuzer, E von Hodenberg, W Kubler, WW Franke, J Allenberg and S Izumo
Molecular Medicine and Cardiovascular Division, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston Mass.

During development of atherosclerotic lesions, vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) undergo changes both phenotypically and in their cytoskeleton composition. An expression of cytokeratins 8 and 18 in SMCs in plaques of the human superficial femoral artery and of cytokeratin 8 in lesions of the aorta was recently described. Since cytokeratins are epithelial markers generally not found in normal adult vascular SMCs, we performed a detailed immunofluorescence microscopy study using a large panel of antibodies against the various cytokeratin polypeptides and other elements of the cytoskeleton. We included lesions of carotid, common and superficial femoral, iliac, and popliteal arteries; the abdominal aorta; and saphenous vein bypass grafts, as well as primary, restenotic, and transplantation-associated lesions of coronary arteries (n = 33). Cytokeratins 8 and 18 were present in myointimal cells of all pathological specimens. Colocalization with smooth muscle alpha-actin identified most cytokeratin-positive cells as SMCs. Only very few cells cosynthesized cytokeratin and desmin, whereas the majority of cytokeratin-positive cells were vimentin-positive. This pattern of cytoskeletal protein synthesis is similar to that found in some fetal and/or neonatal SMCs. These findings suggest that the synthesis of cytokeratins in a subset of SMCs of atherosclerotic lesions is a common phenomenon in coronary artery and peripheral vascular disease as well as graft disease and transplantation-associated arteriosclerosis and that the state of these SMCs is of a "dedifferentiated" fetal type.

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