C-reactive protein (CRP) is a short pentraxin mainly found as a pentamer in the circulation, or as non-soluble monomers CRP (mCRP) in tissues, exerting different functions. This review is focused on discussing the role of CRP in cardiovascular disease, including recent advances on the implication of CRP and its forms specifically on the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis and angiogenesis. Besides its role in the humoral innate immune response, CRP contributes to cardiovascular disease progression by recognizing and binding multiple intrinsic ligands. mCRP is not present in the healthy vessel wall but it becomes detectable in the early stages of atherogenesis and accumulates during the progression of atherosclerosis. CRP inhibits endothelial nitric oxide production and contributes to plaque instability by increasing endothelial cell adhesion molecules expression, by promoting monocyte recruitment into the atheromatous plaque and by enzymatically binding to modified low-density lipoprotein. CRP also contributes to thrombosis, but depending on its form it elicits different actions. Pentameric CRP has no involvement in thrombogenesis, whereas mCRP induces platelet activation and thrombus growth. In addition, mCRP has apparently contradictory pro-angiogenic and anti-angiogenic effects determining tissue remodeling in the atherosclerotic plaque and in infarcted tissues. Overall, CRP contributes to cardiovascular disease by several mechanisms that deserve an in-depth analysis.

Homeobox (Hox) genes are master regulatory genes that direct organogenesis and maintain differentiated tissue function. We previously reported that HoxD10 helps to maintain a quiescent, differentiated phenotype in endothelial cells by suppressing expression of genes involved in remodeling the extracellular matrix and cell migration. Here we investigated whether HoxD10 could also promote or maintain a differentiated phenotype in epithelial cells. We observed that HoxD10 expression is progressively reduced in epithelial cells as malignancy increases in both breast and endometrial tumors. Retroviral gene transfer to restore expression of HoxD10 in the malignant breast tumor cells MDA-MB-231 significantly impaired migration, and when these cells were cultured in a three-dimensional laminin-rich basement membrane (3DlrBM) model, they formed polarized, acinar structures. This phenotypic reversion was accompanied by decreased A3 integrin expression and reduced proliferation. Importantly, expression of HoxD10 in the MDA-MB-231 cells inhibited their ability to form tumors in mouse xenografts. Taken together, our results suggest that HoxD10 has tumor-suppressive functions for mammary epithelial cells. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(16): 7177-85)

Together our results suggest that restoring Hox A5 expression may provide a novel means to limit breast tumor growth or expansion of hemangiomas.

Objective-Tissue factor (TF) triggers arterial thrombosis. TF is also able to initiate cellular signaling mechanisms leading to angiogenesis. Because high cardiovascular risk atherosclerotic plaques show significant angiogenesis, our objective was to investigate whether TF is able to trigger and stabilize atherosclerotic plaque neovessel formation. Methods and Results-In this study, we showed, by real-time confocal microscopy in 3-dimensional basement membrane cocultures, that TF in human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) and in human vascular smooth muscle cells (HVSMCs) plays an important role in the formation of capillary-like networks. TF silencing in endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells inhibits the formation of tube-like structures with stable phenotype. Using an in vivo model, we observed that TF inhibition in either HMEC-1 or HVSMCs reduced their shared ability to form new capillaries. The phenotypic changes induced by TF silencing were linked to reduced chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) expression in endothelial cells. Wound healing and chemotactic assays demonstrated that TF-induced release of CCL2 stimulated HVSMC migration to HMEC-1. Key Words: angiogenesis Ⅲ atherosclerosis Ⅲ cytokines Ⅲ endothelial function Ⅲ vascular biology A therosclerotic plaque angiogenesis, the outgrowth of new capillaries from preexisting vascular networks, is a pathological feature of advanced complicated plaques. 1,2 Interestingly, coronary type VI plaques, according to the American Heart Association classification, are those with higher amount of microvessels and those with higher risk of inducing a clinical cardiovascular event. 3 In advanced plaques, inflammatory cell infiltration and concomitant production of proangiogenic cytokines may be responsible for induction of uncontrolled neointimal microvessel proliferation resulting in production of immature and fragile neovessels. The final stage of microvessel formation occurs when maturation requires the formation of tight endothelial cell-tocell contacts, 4 the downregulation of endothelial proliferation, and the deposition of a basal lamina to which the endothelium tightly adheres, as well as the recruitment of supporting cells to the vessel wall, such as pericytes and smooth muscle cells (SMCs). 5,6 During angiogenesis, the communication between endothelial cells (ECs) and SMCs requires a precise temporal and spatial regulation of pro-and antiangiogenic molecules, but the process is not yet fully understood. Conclusion-Endogenous See accompanying article on page 2364In recent years, it has become clear that the angiogenesis process is highly dependent on components of the blood coagulation cascade. One of these proteins is tissue factor (TF). 7-9 TF is the cellular receptor and cofactor for blood coagulation factor VII (FVII). 10,11 In addition to its primary role in blood coagulation, accumulating evidence has transformed our view of TF from the cellular receptor for activated FVII (FVIIa) to a multifaceted transmembrane signaling receptor. The bioch...