Bone marrow p16INK4a-deficiency does not modulate obesity, glucose homeostasis or atherosclerosis development.

Objective: A genomic region near the CDKN2A locus, encoding p16(INK4a), has been associated to type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic vascular disease, conditions in which inflammation plays an important role. Recently, we found that deficiency of p16(INK4a) results in decreased inflammatory signaling in murine macrophages and that p16(INK4a) influences the phenotype of human adipose tissue macrophages. Therefore, we investigated the influence of immune cell p16(INK4a) on glucose tolerance and atherosclerosis in mice.

PPARgamma activation primes human monocytes into alternative M2 macrophages with anti-inflammatory properties.

Th1 cytokines promote monocyte differentiation into proatherogenic M1 macrophages, while Th2 cytokines lead to an "alternative" anti-inflammatory M2 macrophage phenotype. Here we show that in human atherosclerotic lesions, the expression of M2 markers and PPARgamma, a nuclear receptor controlling macrophage inflammation, correlate positively. Moreover, PPARgamma activation primes primary human monocytes into M2 differentiation, resulting in a more pronounced anti-inflammatory activity in M1 macrophages.