@phdthesis{Becker2021, author = {Becker, Isabelle Carlotta}, title = {The role of megakaryocytes and platelets in vascular and osteogenic development}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-21024}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-210241}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Platelets, small anucleate cell fragments in the blood stream, derive from large precursor cells, so-called megakaryocytes (MK) residing in the bone marrow (BM). In addition to their role in wound healing, platelets have been shown to play a significant role during inflammatory bleeding. Above all, the immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM) receptors GPVI as well as CLEC-2 have been identified as main regulators of vascular integrity. In addition to ITAM-bearing receptors, our group identified GPV as another potent regulator of hemostasis and thrombosis. Surprisingly, concomitant lack of GPV and CLEC-2 deteriorated blood-lymphatic misconnections observed in Clec2-/- mice resulting in severe edema formation and intestinal inflammation. Analysis of lymphatic and vascular development in embryonic mesenteries revealed severely defective blood-lymph-vessel separation, which translated into thrombocytopenia and increased vascular permeability due to reduced tight junction density in mesenteric blood vessels and consequent leakage of blood into the peritoneal cavity. Recently, platelet granule release has been proposed to ameliorate the progression of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a fatal disease in newborns leading to retinal degradation. The mechanisms governing platelet activation in this process remained elusive nonetheless, which prompted us to investigate a possible role of ITAM signaling. In the second part of this thesis, granule release during ROP was shown to be GPVI- and partly CLEC-2-triggered since blockade or loss of these receptors markedly deteriorated ROP progression. Proplatelet formation from MKs is highly dependent on a functional microtubule and actin cytoskeleton, the latter of which is regulated by several actin-monomer binding proteins including Cofilin1 and Twinfilin1 that have been associated with actin-severing at pointed ends. In the present study, a redundancy between both proteins especially important for the guided release of proplatelets into the bloodstream was identified, since deficiency in both proteins markedly impaired MK functionality mainly due to altered actin-microtubule crosstalk. Besides ITAM-triggered activation, platelets and MKs are dependent on inhibitory receptors, which prevent overshooting activation. We here identified macrothrombocytopenic mice with a mutation within Mpig6b encoding the ITIM-bearing receptor G6b-B. G6b-B-mutant mice developed a severe myelofibrosis associated with sex-specific bone remodeling defects resulting in osteosclerosis and -porosis in female mice. Moreover, G6b-B was shown to be indispensable for MK maturation as verified by a significant reduction in MK-specific gene expression in G6b-B-mutant MKs due to reduced GATA-1 activity.}, subject = {Megakaryozyt}, language = {en} } @article{EssigBabilonVollmuthetal.2021, author = {Essig, Fabian and Babilon, Lilith and Vollmuth, Christoph and Kollikowski, Alexander M. and Pham, Mirko and Solymosi, L{\´a}szl{\´o} and Haeusler, Karl Georg and Kraft, Peter and Stoll, Guido and Schuhmann, Michael K.}, title = {High mobility group box 1 protein in cerebral thromboemboli}, series = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences}, volume = {22}, journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences}, number = {20}, issn = {1422-0067}, doi = {10.3390/ijms222011276}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265568}, year = {2021}, abstract = {High-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) is a damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) involved in neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation and thrombosis. NETs are regularly found in cerebral thromboemboli. We here analyzed associated HMGB1 expression in human thromboemboli retrieved via mechanical thrombectomy from 37 stroke patients with large vessel occlusion. HMGB1 was detected in all thromboemboli, accounting for 1.7\% (IQR 0.6-6.2\%) of the total thromboemboli area and was found to be colocalized with neutrophils and NETs and in spatial proximity to platelets. Correlation analysis revealed that the detection of HMGB1 was strongly related to the number of neutrophils (r = 0.58, p = 0.0002) and platelets (r = 0.51, p = 0.001). Our results demonstrate that HMGB1 is a substantial constituent of thromboemboli causing large vessel occlusion stroke.}, language = {en} } @article{VogelsangEichlerHuntemannetal.2021, author = {Vogelsang, Anna and Eichler, Susann and Huntemann, Niklas and Masanneck, Lars and B{\"o}hnlein, Hannes and Sch{\"u}ngel, Lisa and Willison, Alice and Loser, Karin and Nieswandt, Bernhard and Kehrel, Beate E. and Zarbock, Alexander and G{\"o}bel, Kerstin and Meuth, Sven G.}, title = {Platelet inhibition by low-dose acetylsalicylic acid reduces neuroinflammation in an animal model of multiple sclerosis}, series = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences}, volume = {22}, journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences}, number = {18}, issn = {1422-0067}, doi = {10.3390/ijms22189915}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284535}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Aside from the established immune-mediated etiology of multiple sclerosis (MS), compelling evidence implicates platelets as important players in disease pathogenesis. Specifically, numerous studies have highlighted that activated platelets promote the central nervous system (CNS)-directed adaptive immune response early in the disease course. Platelets, therefore, present a novel opportunity for modulating the neuroinflammatory process that characterizes MS. We hypothesized that the well-known antiplatelet agent acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) could inhibit neuroinflammation by affecting platelets if applied at low-dose and investigated its effect during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) as a model to study MS. We found that oral administration of low-dose ASA alleviates symptoms of EAE accompanied by reduced inflammatory infiltrates and less extensive demyelination. Remarkably, the percentage of CNS-infiltrated CD4\(^+\) T cells, the major drivers of neuroinflammation, was decreased to 40.98 ± 3.28\% in ASA-treated mice compared to 56.11 ± 1.46\% in control animals at the disease maximum as revealed by flow cytometry. More interestingly, plasma levels of thromboxane A\(_2\) were decreased, while concentrations of platelet factor 4 and glycoprotein VI were not affected by low-dose ASA treatment. Overall, we demonstrate that low-dose ASA could ameliorate the platelet-dependent neuroinflammatory response in vivo, thus indicating a potential treatment approach for MS.}, language = {en} }