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From the Department of Pathology,* Cardiovascular Disease Laboratory, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan; the First Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Japan; Institute for Experimental Animals, Kobe University School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan; the Department of Cardiology,¶ Fukuoka University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan; Analytical Research Center for Experimental Sciences|| and President Office,** Saga University, Saga, Japan; Cardiovascular Research Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia; and the Department of Pharmacology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
C-reactive protein (CRP) is frequently deposited in the lesions of the arterial intima; however, the origin and pathological significance of CRP in these lesions are not completely understood. In this study, we measured CRP levels in the plasma of hypercholesterolemic rabbits and investigated CRP expression at both the mRNA and protein levels using rabbit and human atherosclerotic specimens. CRP levels were significantly elevated in both cholesterol-fed and Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbits, and CRP levels were clearly correlated with aortic atherosclerotic lesion size. Immunohistochemical staining coupled with Western blotting analysis revealed that CRP-immunoreactive proteins were found at all stages of atherosclerosis from the early to advanced lesions. CRP was present extracellularly and co-localized with apolipoprotein B but was rarely associated with the cytoplasm of macrophages and foam cells. Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that CRP mRNA in atherosclerotic lesions was barely detectable, and isolated macrophages did not express CRP mRNA, suggesting that CRP proteins found in the lesions were essentially derived from the circulation rather than synthesized de novo by vascular cells. These results suggest that there is a link between plasma CRP and the degree of atherosclerosis and that inhibition of plasma CRP may represent a therapeutic modality for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
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