Postnatal mechanical loading drives adaptation of tissues primarily through modulation of the non-collagenous matrix
- University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Royal Veterinary College, United Kingdom
- University College London, United Kingdom
- Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Abstract
Mature connective tissues demonstrate highly specialised properties, remarkably adapted to meet their functional requirements. Tissue adaptation to environmental cues can occur throughout life and poor adaptation commonly results in injury. However, the temporal nature and drivers of functional adaptation remain undefined. Here, we explore functional adaptation and specialisation of mechanically loaded tissues using tendon; a simple aligned biological composite, in which the collagen (fascicle) and surrounding predominantly non-collagenous matrix (interfascicular matrix) can be interrogated independently. Using an equine model of late development, we report the first phase-specific analysis of biomechanical, structural and compositional changes seen in functional adaptation, demonstrating adaptation occurs postnatally, following mechanical loading, and is almost exclusively localised to the non-collagenous interfascicular matrix. These novel data redefine adaptation in connective tissue, highlighting the fundamental importance of non-collagenous matrix and suggesting that regenerative medicine strategies should change focus from the fibrous to the non-collagenous matrix of tissue.
Data availability
The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository, with the dataset identifier PXD012169.
Article and author information
Author details
Chavaunne T Thorpe
Funding
Horserace Betting Levy Board (PRJ/776)
- Danae E Zamboulis
- Helen L Birch
- Hazel R C Screen
- Peter D Clegg
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Samples were collected from horses euthanised for reasons unrelated to this project at a commercial abattoir or equine practices following owner consent under ethical approval for use of the cadaveric material granted by the Veterinary Research Ethics Committee, School of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool (VREC352).
Reviewing Editor
- Subburaman Mohan, Loma Linda University, United States
Publication history
- Received: April 20, 2020
- Accepted: October 12, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: October 16, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: October 28, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2020, Zamboulis et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Postnatal mechanical loading drives adaptation of tissues primarily through modulation of the non-collagenous matrix
eLife 9:e58075.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58075
Further reading
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Background: Causality between plasma triglyceride (TG) levels and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk remains controversial despite more than four decades of study and two recent landmark trials, STRENGTH and REDUCE-IT. Further unclear is the association between TG levels and non-atherosclerotic diseases across organ systems.
Methods: Here, we conducted a phenome-wide, two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis using inverse-variance weighted (IVW) regression to systematically infer the causal effects of plasma TG levels on 2,600 disease traits in the European ancestry population of UK Biobank. For replication, we externally tested 221 nominally significant associations (p < 0.05) in an independent cohort from FinnGen. To account for potential horizontal pleiotropy and the influence of invalid instrumental variables, we performed sensitivity analyses using MR-Egger regression, weighted median estimator, and MR-PRESSO. Finally, we used multivariable MR controlling for correlated lipid fractions to distinguish the independent effect of plasma TG levels.
Results: Our results identified 7 disease traits reaching Bonferroni-corrected significance in both the discovery (p < 1.92 × 10-5) and replication analyses (p < 2.26 × 10-4), suggesting a causal relationship between plasma TG levels and ASCVDs, including coronary artery disease (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.24-1.43, p = 2.47 × 10-13). We also identified 12 disease traits that were Bonferroni-significant in the discovery or replication analysis and at least nominally significant in the other analysis (p < 0.05), identifying plasma TG levels as a novel potential risk factor for 9 non-ASCVD diseases, including uterine leiomyoma (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.10-1.29, p = 1.17 × 10-5).
Conclusions: Taking a phenome-wide, two-sample MR approach, we identified causal associations between plasma TG levels and 19 disease traits across organ systems. Our findings suggest unrealized drug repurposing opportunities or adverse effects related to approved and emerging TG-lowering agents, as well as mechanistic insights for future studies.
Funding: RD is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R35-GM124836) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH (R01-HL139865 and R01-HL155915).
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Methods: We conducted a prospective single arm clinical trial enrolling patients with cancer that had received two doses of mRNA or one dose of AD26.CoV2.S vaccine and administered a 3rd dose of mRNA vaccine. We further enrolled patients that had no or low responses to three mRNA COVID vaccines and assessed the efficacy of a 4th dose of mRNA vaccine. Efficacy was assessed by changes in anti-spike antibody, T-cell activity and neutralization activity were again assessed at baseline and 4 weeks.
Results: We demonstrate that a 3rd dose of COVID-19 vaccine leads to seroconversion in 57% of patients that were seronegative after primary vaccination series. The immune response is durable as assessed by anti-S antibody titers, T-cell activity and neutralization activity against wild-type SARS-CoV2 and BA1.1.529 at 6 months of follow up. A subset of severely immunocompromised hematologic malignancy patients that were unable to mount an adequate immune response (titer <1000 AU/mL) after the 3rd dose and were treated with a 4th dose in a prospective clinical trial which led to adequate immune-boost in 67% of patients. Low baseline IgM levels and CD19 counts were associated with inadequate seroconversion. Booster doses induced limited neutralization activity against the Omicron variant.
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Funding: Leukemia lymphoma society, National Cancer Institute.
Clinical trial identifier: NCT05016622.
