Author(s)

Guangzhi Liu, Yang He, Tingting Yang, Hong Jiang, Yajuan Xiang, Qi Zhang, Xiangjun He, Peter Hjelmstrom, Xuguang Gao

Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Neurology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China.
Key Laboratory Centre, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China.

Background: As a member of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily (TNFSF), LIGHT (TNFSF14) is expressed by a variety of immune cells and exists in membrane-bound and soluble forms. Recently, LIGHT was found to be associated with platelets and released upon activation. Activation of endothelia cells by recombinant LIGHT protein results in pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic changes. Several studies have reported increased plasma levels of LIGHT in patients with stroke and cardiovascular diseases. However, the form-associated roles of LIGHT in ischemic atherosclerotic stroke remain unclear. Mater?als and Methods: In this study, the platelet LIGHT expression and soluble LIGHT protein were analyzed by flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in peripheral blood of patients with acute ischemic atherosclerotic stroke, asymptomatic carotid stenosis (ACS) and normal controls. RESULTS: During the initial 24 h after onset, the stroke patients had decreased LIGHT expression on their platelets (5.9% ± 4.9%) and increased plasma LIGHT levels (36.1 ± 21.0 pg/ml) as compared with normal controls (9.5% ± 3.0%, p < 0.05; 20.4 ± 13.4 pg/ml, p < 0.05). Moreover, the platelet LIGHT expression correlated with total plaque area in the stroke patients (r = 0.4572, p = 0.0247). Conclus?ons: The dysregulated LIGHT expression reflects a persistent chronic inflammatory response that may have been induced during early stages of ischemic atherosclerotic stroke. Our results strongly suggest distinctive roles of form-associated LIGHT in the disease pathogenesis: platelet-associated LIGHT may contribute to formation and development of carotid atherosclerotic plaque, probably involving plaque destabilization, while soluble LIGHT may predominantly functions as a pro-inflammatory cytokine in the inflammatory process.

LIGHT, Ischemic Atherosclerotic Stroke, Atherogenesis, Peripheral Blood

Liu, G. , He, Y. , Yang, T. , Jiang, H. , Xiang, Y. , Zhang, Q. , He, X. , Hjelmstrom, P. and Gao, X. (2014) Elevated Plasma Levels but Decreased Platelet-Associated Expression of LIGHT in Patients with Acute Atherothrombotic Stroke. World Journal of Neuroscience, 4, 385-393. doi: 10.4236/wjns.2014.44042.