Midkine: A multifaceted driver of atherosclerosis.

Abstract

Atherosclerosis constitutes the pathological basis of life-threatening events, including heart attack and stroke. Midkine is a heparin-binding growth factor and forms a small protein family with pleiotrophin. Under inflammatory or hypoxic conditions, midkine expression is up-regulated. Upon binding to its receptors, midkine can activate multiple signal pathways to regulate cell survival and migration, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and oncogenesis. Circulating midkine levels are significantly increased in patients with essential hypertension, obesity or severe peripheral artery disease. Importantly, midkine exerts a proatherogenic effect by altering multiple pathophysiological processes involving atherogenesis, including macrophage lipid accumulation, vascular inflammation, neointima formation, insulin resistance and macrophage apoptosis. Midkine represents a potential therapeutic target for atherosclerosis-associated diseases. This review described the structure characteristics, expression patterns and signal transduction pathways of midkine with an emphasis on its role in atherosclerosis.

• Authors: Zi-Zhen Zhang, Gang Wang, Shan-Hui Yin, Xiao-Hua Yu
• Journal: Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry (Clin Chim Acta) Vol. 521 Pg. 251-257 (Oct 2021) ISSN: 1873-3492 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 34331952 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Cytokines
• Midkine
• Fibroblast Growth Factors

Topics

• Atherosclerosis
• Cytokines
• Fibroblast Growth Factors
• Humans
• Macrophages
• Midkine
• Signal Transduction