Male sex is a risk factor for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Within the AAA adventitia, infiltrating leukocytes express high levels of inflammasome components. To further elucidate the role of inflammatory cells in the pathogenesis of AAA, we here addressed expression and functionality of inflammasome components in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of AAA patients in association with sex. PBMC and plasma were isolated from 100 vascular patients, including 34 pairs of AAA patients and age/sexmatched non-AAA patients. Male PBMC were found to express significantly higher mRNA levels of AIM2, NLRP3, ASC (PYCARD), CASP1, CASP5, and IL1B (all P < 0.0001) than female PBMC. Within the male patients, PBMC of AAA patients displayed increased mRNA levels of NLRP3 (P = 0.044), CASP1 (P = 0.032) and IL1B (P = 0.0004) compared with matched non-AAA PBMC, whereas there was no difference between female AAA and non-AAA patients. The relative protein level of NLRP3 was significantly lower in PBMC lysates from all AAA patients than in matched controls (P = 0.038), whereas AIM2 and active Caspase-1 (p10) protein levels were significantly increased (P = 0.014 and P = 0.049). ELISA revealed significantly increased IL-1α (mean = 6.34 versus 0.01 pg/mL) and IL-1β plasma levels (mean = 12.07 versus 0.04 pg/mL) in AAA patients. The data indicate that male PBMC display a systemic proinflammatory state with primed inflammasomes that may contribute to AAA-pathogenesis. The AAA-specific inflammasome activation pattern suggests differential regulation of the sensors AIM2 and NLRP3 in inflammatory cells of AAA patients.

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are characterized by chronic inflammatory cell infiltration. The present extended immunohistochemistry study aimed to characterize inflammation in AAA and aortic control samples. In specific, the composition of the infiltrating immune cells and the expression of five inflammasome components in these immune cells were evaluated, in order to characterize their role in AAA development. A total of 104 biopsies from 48 AAA patients and 40 healthy specimens from organ donors were evaluated for their grade of inflammation. Infiltrating leukocytes were characterized by specific markers (CD3, CD20 and CD68), intramural localization and inflammasome protein expression [NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC), Caspase-1 and Caspase-5]. Macrophages, B and T lymphocytes were detected to a similar extent in grade 1, 2 and 3 AAA specimens, whereas in control samples, B and T lymphocytes were rarely observed in grade 1 lesions. Expression frequencies of NLRP3, AIM2 and Caspase-5 were significantly higher in grade 1 lesions of AAA samples compared with grade 1 lesions in control samples. Finally, AIM2, ASC, and Caspase-5 displayed significantly lower expression frequencies in grade 3 compared with grade 2 AAA specimens, and all inflammasome components were less frequently detected in grade 3 than in grade 1 lesions of AAA. This indicates that inflammasome activities decrease with AAA progression in infiltrating leukocytes. No statistically significant association was found for grade 2 and grade 3 lesions and total leukocyte count, C-reactive protein levels, maximal aortic diameter, plasma cholesterol level or biomechanical parameters (derived from finite element analysis) of the respective patients. Overall, the aortic wall of AAA contained lymphocytes and macrophages with different states of activity. The present data suggested that therapeutic inhibition of specific inflammasome components might counteract AAA development and progression.

ÖZAfiş sanatı, ortaya çıkış tarihinden itibaren belli bir olayı veya durumu hedef kitlesine ulaştırmak amacıyla toplumlara hizmet etmiştir. Afiş uygulamalarının etkinliği her geçen dönem yüksek bir ivme kazanmış ve önemini artırmıştır. Bu bağlamda teknoloji ile bağlantılı olarak tasarım aşamasından geçen sanat eserleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Aynı doğrultuda ortaya çıkan sanat eserleri, içinde bulunulan dönem şartlarına göre çeşitli teknikler ışığında yoluna devam etmiştir. Görsel eğitimin toplumlar üzerinde gerek geçmişte gerek günümüzde ne derece önemli bir etki bıraktığı tartışılmaz bir gerçektir. Özellikle illüstrasyon uygulamalarının ilgi çekme ve kalıcı olma özelliğinden dolayı hedef kitle üzerindeki etkisi üst seviyede olmuştur. Bu çalışmada, içeriksel olarak illüstrasyon ve grafik tasarım elemanı olan afiş uygulamaları gelişen teknoloji ile birlikte ele alınmıştır. Tarihsel süreçler hakkında bilgilendirme yapılarak afiş sanatının türleri arasında yer alan kültürel afiş uygulamaları ile sınırlandırılmıştır. Gelişen teknolojinin ürünleri olan bilgisayar destekli programlardan yararlanılarak çeşitli kültürel afiş uygulamaları yapılmıştır. Bu tarz afiş uygulamalarının hedef kitle üzerindeki etkileri irdelenmiş ve yorumlanarak pekiştirilmiştir. Bu doğrultuda illüstrasyon sanatının kültürel afiş uygulamaları üzerindeki etkinliğinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır.