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Pro-ferroptotic signaling promotes arterial aging via vascular smooth muscle cell senescence.

Di-Yang SunWen-Bin WuJian-Jin WuYu ShiJia-Jun XuShen-Xi OuyangChen ChiYi ShiQing-Xin JiJin-Hao MiaoJiang-Tao FuJie TongPing-Ping ZhangJia-Bao ZhangZhi-Yong LiLe-Feng QuFu-Ming ShenDong-Jie LiPei Wang
Published in: Nature communications (2024)
Senescence of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) contributes to aging-related cardiovascular diseases by promoting arterial remodelling and stiffness. Ferroptosis is a novel type of regulated cell death associated with lipid oxidation. Here, we show that pro-ferroptosis signaling drives VSMCs senescence to accelerate vascular NAD + loss, remodelling and aging. Pro-ferroptotic signaling is triggered in senescent VSMCs and arteries of aged mice. Furthermore, the activation of pro-ferroptotic signaling in VSMCs not only induces NAD + loss and senescence but also promotes the release of a pro-senescent secretome. Pharmacological or genetic inhibition of pro-ferroptosis signaling, ameliorates VSMCs senescence, reduces vascular stiffness and retards the progression of abdominal aortic aneurysm in mice. Mechanistically, we revealed that inhibition of pro-ferroptotic signaling facilitates the nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttling of proliferator-activated receptor-γ and, thereby impeding nuclear receptor coactivator 4-ferrtin complex-centric ferritinophagy. Finally, the activated pro-ferroptotic signaling correlates with arterial stiffness in a human proof-of-concept study. These findings have significant implications for future therapeutic strategies aiming to eliminate vascular ferroptosis in senescence- or aging-associated cardiovascular diseases.
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