Bone morphogenetic protein -7 increases thrombogenicity of lipid-rich atherosclerotic plaques via activation of tissue factor

Thrombogenicity of atherosclerotic plaques largely depends on plaque morphology. Tissue factor (TF) expression is higher in lipid-rich than in calcified lesions. Although bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) -7 is a known inhibitor of vascular calcification, the role of BMP-7 in the development of plaque thrombogenicity is uncertain. We hypothesized that increased thrombogenic potential of lipid-rich plaques is attributed to activation of TF by BMP-7. We measured levels of BMP-7 and TF proteins in lipid-rich and calcified carotid plaques, and tested the effects of BMP-7 on TF expression in human monocytes in vitro. Quantitative immunohistochemical analysis of endarterectomy specimens for TF and BMP-7 revealed that lipid-rich plaques contained more TF antigen than calcified ones (158.6 ± 25.3 vs 37.4 ± 8.8 AU, p < 0.008). Lipid-rich plaques also expressed higher levels of BMP-7 (60.7 ± 5.2 AU) than calcified lesions (31.8 ± 8.6 AU, p < 0.021). In vitro treatment of whole blood with BMP-7 markedly increased the population of TF-positive monocytes from 1.5 ± 0.6 % to 31.0 ± 7.6 % (p < 0.001). Stimulation of blood with BMP-7 was accompanied by elevated surface presentation of TF antigen in monocytes as TF-dependent fluorescence intensity increased from 5.0 ± 2.6 AU in unstimulated conditions to 15.8 ± 1.9 AU after incubation with BMP-7 (p < 0.002). Our data suggest that BMP-7 contributes to increased thrombogenicity of lipid-rich plaques via enhancement of TF expression.