Pro- and anti-inflammatory actions in coronary artery disease : with focus on CD56+ T cells and Annexin A1

¨The atherosclerotic process is considered to be driven by an imbalance between proand anti-inflammatory actions. Still, the inflammatory state in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) remains to be clarified. Annexin A1 (AnxA1) is a glucocorticoidinduced protein which may have a key role in the anti-inflammatory response as a mediator of glucocorticoid effects. The general aim of this thesis was to deepen the knowledge of pro- and antiinflammatory mechanisms in CAD via phenotypic assessments of immune cell subsets, in particular CD56+ T cells, and exploration of AnxA1. The long-term goal is to reveal basic mechanisms that will lead to the development of biomarkers, which may be used for individualized treatment and monitoring. The AnxA1 protein was constitutively expressed in both neutrophils and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). However, it varied considerably across PBMC subsets, being most abundantly expressed in monocytes. The AnxA1 expression was also higher in CD56+ T cells than in CD56- T cells. The expression of total AnxA1 protein in neutrophils was higher in patients with stable angina (SA) compared with controls. However, this was not accompanied by altered neutrophil activation status. Instead, the neutrophils from patients exhibited an enhanced anti-inflammatory response to exogenous AnxA1, emphasizing the potential of AnxA1 as an inhibitor of neutrophil activity. Only patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) showed an increase in cell surface-associated AnxA1. CAD patients, independent of clinical presentation, had increased proportions of CD56+ T cells compared with controls, a phenomenon likely to represent immunological aging. The CD56+ T cells were found to exhibit a distinct proinflammatory phenotype compared with CD56- T cells. In all T cell subsets, the expression of cell surface-associated AnxA1 was significantly increased in ACS patients, while it tended to be increased in post-ACS patients. In addition, dexamethasone clearly inhibited activation of CD56+ T cells in in vitro assays, whereas AnxA1 did not. The findings highlight the need to clarify whether the role of AnxA1 is different in T cells than in innate immune cells. In PBMCs, the mRNA levels of AnxA1 were increased in CAD patients, particularly in ACS patients. Correspondingly, the monocytes in ACS patients exhibited increased AnxA1 protein levels, both totally and on the cell surface. However, only cell surface-associated AnxA1 in monocytes correlated with the glucocorticoid sensitivity of PBMCs ex vivo. We propose the expression of cell surfaceassociated AnxA1 to be a promising candidate marker of glucocorticoid sensitivity, which needs further investigations in larger cohorts and intervention trials. Furthermore, the fact that PBMCs in post-ACS patients exhibited pro-inflammatory activity but no increase in cell surface-associated AnxA1 allow us to speculate that the glucocorticoid action and/or availability might be insufficient in these patients