Adrenal SGLT1 or SGLT2 as predictors of atherosclerosis under chronic stress based on a computer algorithm
Jianyi Li, Lingbing Meng, Dishan Wu, Hongxuan Xu, Xing Hu, Gaifeng Hu, Yuhui Chen, Jiapei Xu, Tao Gong, Deping Liu- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Medicine
- General Neuroscience
Background
Chronic stress promotes the development of atherosclerosis, causing disruptions in the body’s hormone levels and changes in the structural function of organs.
Objective
The purpose of this study was to investigate the pathological changes in the adrenal gland in a model of atherosclerosis under chronic stress and to verify the expression levels of Sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT) 1 and SGLT2 in the adrenal gland and their significance in the changes of adrenal gland.
Methods
The model mice were constructed by chronic unpredictable stress, high-fat diet, and Apoe-/- knockout, and they were tested behaviorally at 0, 4, 8 and 12 weeks. The state of the abdominal artery was examined by ultrasound, and the pathological changes of the aorta and adrenal glands were observed by histological methods, and the expression levels and distribution of SGLT1 and SGLT2 in the adrenal gland were observed and analyzed by immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. The predictive value of SGLT1 and SGLT2 expression levels on intima-media thickness, internal diameter and adrenal abnormalities were verified by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, support vector machine (SVM) and back-propagation (BP) neural network.
Results
The results showed that chronic stress mice had elevated expression levels of SGLT1 and SGLT2. The model mice developed thickening intima-media and smaller internal diameter in the aorta, and edema, reticular fiber rupture, increased adrenal glycogen content in the adrenal glands. More importantly, analysis of ROC, SVM and BP showed that SGLT1 and SGLT2 expression levels in the adrenal glands could predict the above changes in the aorta and were also sensitive and specific predictors of adrenal abnormalities.
Conclusion
SGLT1 and SGLT2 could be potential biomarkers of adrenal injury in atherosclerosis under chronic stress.