ESR 5: Jan Nagenborg

j.nagenborg@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Re-instructing the atherosclerotic plaque macrophage

Research project

Atherosclerosis can be seen as a non-resolving inflammation within the affected artery wall. A major pivotal role is played by the macrophage, not only in view of its accumulation but also differentiation into specific cells (foam cells). Can we influence macrophage phenotype in the plaque? Thus, the objective herein is to unravel regulatory cues in pathogenic inflammation versus inflammation resolving plaque macrophage functions and to skew macrophage differentiation towards the latter.

ESR 5 specific objectives will entail:

1. Dissection of the phenotypic makeup of human CD68+ plaque macrophages, integrating histo-pathology and FACS to mRNA expression patterns
2. Correlating macrophage phenotypes to context and descent under conditions of hyperlipidemia
3. In situ correction or reinstruction of macrophage phenotype.

Main Supervisor

Name: Erik Biessen
Email: erik.biessen@mumc.nl or erik.biessen@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Host Institution

CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases
Maastricht University
Universiteitssingel 50
6229 ER Maastricht
The Netherlands

Expected Results

Development of new strategies to re-instruct macrophages towards a tissue-protective phenotype by targeting hits defined with this project.

Planned secondment(s)

1. UCD, Ireland (June-August 2018): To perform advanced bioinformatics analysis of macrophage omics data.
2. LMU, Germany (2019): To perform in vivo tracking studies in models of atherosclerosis.