Maternal High-Fat Diet Promotes Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Expansion in Adult Offspring by Epigenetic Regulation of IRF8-Mediated Osteoclast-like Macrophage Differentiation

Maternal high-fat diet (HFD) modulates vascular remodeling in adult offspring. Here, we investigated the impact of maternal HFD on abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) development. Female wild-type mice were fed an HFD or normal diet (ND). AAA was induced in eight-week-old pups using calcium chloride. Male offspring of HFD-fed dams (O-HFD) showed a significant enlargement in AAA compared with the offspring of ND-fed dams (O-ND). Positive-staining cells for tartrate-resistant acid phosphate (TRAP) and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity were significantly increased in O-HFD. The pharmacological inhibition of osteoclastogenesis abolished the exaggerated AAA development in O-HFD. The in vitro tumor necrosis factor-α-induced osteoclast-like differentiation of bone marrow-derived macrophages showed a higher number of TRAP-positive cells and osteoclast-specific gene expressions in O-HFD. Consistent with an increased expression of nuclear factor of activated T cells 1 (NFATc1) in O-HFD, the nuclear protein expression of interferon regulatory factor 8 (IRF8), a transcriptional repressor, were much lower, with significantly increased H3K27me3 marks at the promoter region. The enhancer of zeste homolog 2 inhibitor treatment restored IRF8 expression, resulting in no difference in NFATc1 and TRAP expressions between the two groups. Our findings demonstrate that maternal HFD augments AAA expansion, accompanied by exaggerated osteoclast-like macrophage accumulation, suggesting the possibility of macrophage skewing via epigenetic reprogramming.