TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wiese, Teresa
A1  - Dennstädt, Fabio
A1  - Hollmann, Claudia
A1  - Stonawski, Saskia
A1  - Wurst, Catherina
A1  - Fink, Julian
A1  - Gorte, Erika
A1  - Mandasari, Putri
A1  - Domschke, Katharina
A1  - Hommers, Leif
A1  - Vanhove, Bernard
A1  - Schumacher, Fabian
A1  - Kleuser, Burkard
A1  - Seibel, Jürgen
A1  - Rohr, Jan
A1  - Buttmann, Mathias
A1  - Menke, Andreas
A1  - Schneider-Schaulies, Jürgen
A1  - Beyersdorf, Niklas
T1  - Inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase increases regulatory T cells in humans
JF  - Brain Communications
N2  - Genetic deficiency for acid sphingomyelinase or its pharmacological inhibition has been shown to increase Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T-cell frequencies among CD4\(^+\) T cells in mice. We now investigated whether pharmacological targeting of the acid sphingomyelinase, which catalyzes the cleavage of sphingomyelin to ceramide and phosphorylcholine, also allows to manipulate relative CD4\(^+\) Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T-cell frequencies in humans. Pharmacological acid sphingomyelinase inhibition with antidepressants like sertraline, but not those without an inhibitory effect on acid sphingomyelinase activity like citalopram, increased the frequency of Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cell among human CD4\(^+\) T cells in vitro. In an observational prospective clinical study with patients suffering from major depression, we observed that acid sphingomyelinase-inhibiting antidepressants induced a stronger relative increase in the frequency of CD4\(^+\) Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cells in peripheral blood than acid sphingomyelinase-non- or weakly inhibiting antidepressants. This was particularly true for CD45RA\(^-\) CD25\(^{high}\) effector CD4\(^+\) Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cells. Mechanistically, our data indicate that the positive effect of acid sphingomyelinase inhibition on CD4\(^+\) Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cells required CD28 co-stimulation, suggesting that enhanced CD28 co-stimulation was the driver of the observed increase in the frequency of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells among human CD4\(^+\) T cells. In summary, the widely induced pharmacological inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase activity in patients leads to an increase in Foxp3+ regulatory T-cell frequencies among CD4\(^+\) T cells in humans both in vivo and in vitro.
KW  - acid sphingomyelinase
KW  - antidepressants
KW  - major depression
KW  - regulatory T cells
KW  - sphingolipids
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259868
VL  - 3
IS  - 2
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Popp, Sandy
A1  - Schmitt-Böhrer, Angelika
A1  - Langer, Simon
A1  - Hofmann, Ulrich
A1  - Hommers, Leif
A1  - Schuh, Kai
A1  - Frantz, Stefan
A1  - Lesch, Klaus-Peter
A1  - Frey, Anna
T1  - 5-HTT Deficiency in Male Mice Affects Healing and Behavior after Myocardial Infarction
JF  - Journal of Clinical Medicine
N2  - Anxiety disorders and depression are common comorbidities in cardiac patients. Mice lacking the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) exhibit increased anxiety-like behavior. However, the role of 5-HTT deficiency on cardiac aging, and on healing and remodeling processes after myocardial infarction (MI), remains unclear. Cardiological evaluation of experimentally naïve male mice revealed a mild cardiac dysfunction in ≥4-month-old 5-HTT knockout (−/−) animals. Following induction of chronic cardiac dysfunction (CCD) by MI vs. sham operation 5-HTT−/− mice with infarct sizes >30% experienced 100% mortality, while 50% of 5-HTT+/− and 37% of 5-HTT+/+ animals with large MI survived the 8-week observation period. Surviving (sham and MI < 30%) 5-HTT−/− mutants displayed reduced exploratory activity and increased anxiety-like behavior in different approach-avoidance tasks. However, CCD failed to provoke a depressive-like behavioral response in either 5-Htt genotype. Mechanistic analyses were performed on mice 3 days post-MI. Electrocardiography, histology and FACS of inflammatory cells revealed no abnormalities. However, gene expression of inflammation-related cytokines (TGF-β, TNF-α, IL-6) and MMP-2, a protein involved in the breakdown of extracellular matrix, was significantly increased in 5-HTT−/− mice after MI. This study shows that 5-HTT deficiency leads to age-dependent cardiac dysfunction and disrupted early healing after MI probably due to alterations of inflammatory processes in mice.
KW  - chronic heart failure
KW  - myocardial infarction
KW  - serotonin transporter deficient mice
KW  - anxiety
KW  - depression
KW  - behavior
KW  - inflammation
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242739
SN  - 2077-0383
VL  - 10
IS  - 14
ER  -