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European Heart Journal Advance Access published online on August 17, 2009
European Heart Journal, doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehp308
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Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2009. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Monocyte heterogeneity in obesity and subclinical atherosclerosis

Kyrill S. Rogacev1,{dagger}, Christof Ulrich1,{dagger}, Lutz Blömer1, Florian Hornof1, Katrin Oster1, Maren Ziegelin1, Bodo Cremers2, Yvonne Grenner3, Jürgen Geisel4, Axel Schlitt5, Hans Köhler1, Danilo Fliser1, Matthias Girndt1 and Gunnar H. Heine1,*

1 Department of Internal Medicine IV, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg 66421, Germany
2 Department of Internal Medicine III, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany
3 Department of Internal Medicine II, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany
4 Central Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany
5 Department of Internal Medicine III, Martin-Luther-University, Halle/Saale, Germany

Received 22 September 2008; revised 14 June 2009; accepted 15 July 2009 * Corresponding author. Tel: +49 6841 162 3527, Fax: +49 6841 1623545, Email: gunnar.heine{at}uks.eu

Aims: Monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages have been recognised as the cellular hallmark of atherosclerosis decades ago. Recently, they have also been shown to play a pivotal role in obesity. Monocytes display immunophenotypic heterogeneity with functionally distinct subpopulations. We initiated the I LIKE HOMe study to examine monocyte heterogeneity in obesity and subclinical atherosclerosis.

Methods and results: We assessed carotid intima media thickness (IMT), body mass index (BMI), and other cardiovascular risk factors in 622 healthy volunteers. Using flow-cytometry, we differentiated monocytes into CD14++CD16– and CD16+ cells, which we further subdivided into CD14++CD16+ and CD14(+)CD16+ cells. Body mass index was significantly correlated with carotid IMT. High CD16+ monocyte counts were significantly associated with both higher BMI and increased carotid IMT. Adjustment for CD16+ monocyte counts weakened the correlation between BMI and carotid IMT, suggesting that the increase in CD16+ monocyte numbers in obesity may partly explain the association between obesity and IMT.

Conclusion: Our results reveal a significant univariate association between CD16+ monocytes and both obesity and subclinical atherosclerosis in low-risk individuals. They are in line with recent observations that CD16+ monocytes show high endothelial affinity and a potent capacity to invade vascular lesions and to transform into pro-inflammatory cytokine producing macrophages.

Key Words: Immunology • Monocytes • Subclinical atherosclerosis • Obesity

{dagger} The first two authors contributed equally to the study.


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