Overexpression of Gremlin-1 in Patients with Loeys-Dietz Syndrome: Implications on Pathophysiology and Early Disease Detection

BACKGROUNDS The Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) is an inherited connective tissue disorder caused by mutations in the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) receptors TGFBR1 or TGFBR2. Most patients with LDS develop severe aortic aneurysms resulting in early need of surgical intervention. In order to gain further insight into the pathophysiology of the disorder, we investigated circulating outgrowth endothelial cells (OEC) from the peripheral blood of LDS patients from a cohort of 23 patients including 6 patients with novel TGF-β receptor mutations. METHODS AND RESULTS We performed gene expression profiling of OECs using microarray analysis followed by quantitative PCR for verification of gene expression. Compared to OECs of age- and sex-matched healthy controls, OECs isolated from three LDS patients displayed altered expression of several genes belonging to the TGF-β pathway, especially those affecting bone morphogenic protein (BMP) signalling including BMP2, BMP4 and BMPR1A. Gene expression of BMP antagonist Gremlin-1 (GREM1) showed the most prominent up-regulation. This increase was confirmed at the protein level by immunoblotting of LDS-OECs. In immunohistochemistry, abundant Gremlin-1 protein expression could be verified in endothelial cells as well as smooth muscle cells within the arterial media. Furthermore, Gremlin-1 plasma levels of LDS patients were significantly elevated compared to healthy control subjects. CONCLUSIONS These findings open new avenues in the understanding of the pathogenesis of Loeys-Dietz syndrome and the development of new diagnostic serological methods for early disease detection.