Background:
S100A1, a cardiomyocyte specific inotropic calcium sensor protein, is released from infarcted human myocardium in the extracellular environment and circulation, reaching peak serum levels (1–2 μM) 8–9 hours after clinical onset. As growing evidence indicates that S100 proteins can act as pre-existing danger signals triggering the innate immune system into action upon release from injured host cells, we hypothesized that damage-released S100A1 can act as a cardiac danger signal alerting innate immune cells.
Methods and Results:
Here we report for the first time that necrotic cardiomyocytes release S100A1 protein in vitro, which is exclusively internalized by cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) in a clathrin- and caveolin-independent manner as shown by IF. Internalized S100A1 specifically activated MAPKs/SAPKs (p38, ERK1/2 and JNK) resulting in nuclear translocation of p65 (NF-kB) as assessed by Western blotting, EMSA and IF. In turn, S100A1 triggered an inflammatory gene program in CFs including enhanced expression of adhesion molecules, integrins, chemokines and cytokines including I-CAM, V-CAM, CD11b/18, IL1-alpha, MCP-1, TNF-alpha, SDF-1 among others as obtained by RT-PCR, Western blotting and ELISA. This resulted in enhanced chemoattraction and adhesion of monocytotic and stem cells to S100A1-activated CF as shown by Boyden-chamber and adhesion assays. In line with their proinflammatory transition, S100A1-activated CFs exhibited decreased collagen-1/-3 expression and de-novo collagen production, enhanced collagenolytic MMP-9 abundance and activity and increased levels of the antiangiogenic matricellular factor thrombospondin-2 reflecting extracellular matrix net degradation. Importantly, the immun-modulatory and antifibrotic actions of S100A1 protein in vitro were restricted to CFs, RAGE independent and occurred at concentrations (0.1–1 μM) that were found in patients after AMI.
Conclusion:
Our in vitro results indicate that S100A1 has the properties of a pre-exisiting endogenous cardiomyocyte danger signal transforming cardiac fibroblasts into immunmodulatory cells that might recruit innate immune cells to the site of cardiac injury and link cardiomyocyte damage to post-MI inflammation.