Role of ADAM17 and JAM-A/F11R in aging-related arterial wall shear stress mechanosensing and abnormal vascular remodeling

Abstract

Physiological and pathological vascular remodeling is uniquely driven by mechanical forces from blood flow in which wall shear stress (WSS) mechanosensing by the vascular endothelium plays a pivotal role. This study aimed to determine the novel role for a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17 (ADAM17) in impaired WSS mechanosensing, which was hypothesized to contribute to aging-associated abnormal vascular remodeling. Without changes in arterial blood pressure and blood flow rate, skeletal muscle resistance arteries of aged mice (30-month old vs. 12-week old) exhibited impaired WSS mechanosensing and displayed inward hypertrophic arterial remodeling. These vascular changes were recapitulated by in vivo confined, AAV9-mediated overexpression of ADAM17 in the resistance arteries of young mice. An aging-related increase in ADAM17 expression reduced the endothelial junction level of its cleavage substrate, junctional adhesion molecule-A/F11 receptor (JAM-A/F11R). In cultured endothelial cells subjected to steady WSS, ADAM17 activation or JAM-A/F11R knockdown inhibited WSS mechanosensing. The ADAM17-activation induced impaired WSS mechanosensing was normalized by overexpression of ADAM17 cleavage resistant, mutated JAM-A/F11RV232Y both in cultured endothelial cells and in resistance arteries of aged mice, in vivo. These data demonstrate a novel role for ADAM17 in JAM-A/F11R cleavage-mediated impaired endothelial WSS mechanosensing and subsequent development of abnormal arterial remodeling in aging. ADAM17 could prove to be a key regulator of WSS mechanosensing, whereby it can also play a role in pathological vascular remodeling in diseases.