Our aim was to determine the association between Gas6 and measures of carotid artery atherosclerosis in humans undergoing elective coronary angiography.
The network with the strongest support for causal effects was connected to plaques through SLC39A8, a gene with known association to HDL-cholesterol and cellular uptake of cadmium from tobacco, while smoking was directly connected to GAS6, a gene reported to have anti-inflammatory effects in atherosclerosis and to be up-regulated in the placenta of women smoking during pregnancy.
Here we used Taqman low-density arrays and immunoblotting to study mRNA and protein expression of GAS6, ProS and the TAM receptors in human carotid arteries with different degrees of atherosclerosis.
Here, we report that Gas6 is expressed in all stages of human and mouse atherosclerosis, in plaque endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and macrophages.