Mediators of Inflammation

Review Article

The Role of Monocytes and Macrophages in Human Atherosclerosis, Plaque Neoangiogenesis, and Atherothrombosis

Table 1

Summary of currently available studies on human circulating monocytes subsets and atherosclerosis.


Authors	Year	Sample size	Monocyte subpopulation of interest	Main result	Reference

Jaipersad et al.	2014	160 individuals with carotid artery stenosis	CCR2-expressing monocytes, subdivided into classical, intermediate, and nonclassical subsets	Classical CD14^hiCD16^-CCR2⁺ monocytes are associated with the degree of carotid stenosis and plaque neovascularization evidenced by CEUS	[63]
Ammirati et al.	2016	64 individuals with intermediate carotid artery stenosis	CD14⁺ monocytes subdivided into classical, intermediate, and nonclassical subsets	Total CD14⁺ monocytes and nonclassical CD14^hiCD16^- monocytes are reduced in subjects with higher CEUS-evidenced neovascularization	[64]
Ammirati et al.	2018	9 individuals with intermediate carotid artery stenosis	CD14⁺ monocytes subdivided into classical, intermediate, and nonclassical subsets	People with a stronger uptake of activated macrophage-specific radiotracer PK11195 had reduced circulating total CD14⁺ monocytes and nonclassical CD14^hiCD16^- monocytes	[65]
Justo-Junior et al.	2018	18 controls, 34 individuals with CVRF, 32 patients with stable angina, and 16 patients with unstable angina	Classical, intermediate, and nonclassical circulating monocytes	Intermediate CD14^hiCD16⁺ monocytes were elevated in unstable angina patients. They also displayed high expression of PRRs	[22]
Yamamoto et al.	2016	389 CAD patients	Peripheral blood monocytes	A high monocyte count predicted future cardiovascular events in CAD patients	[66]
Zhuang et al.	2017	48 patients with unstable angina and 31 patients with STEMI	Classical, intermediate, and nonclassical monocytes	Patients with evidence of thin cap fibroatheroma on OCT had significantly mode circulating intermediate CD14^hiCD16⁺ monocytes	[67]
Lorenzen et al.	2011	191 subjects undergoing hemodialysis	CD14⁺TLR4⁺ monocytes	No association between CD14⁺TLR4⁺ and cardiovascular deaths or cardiovascular events	[68]
Collin et al.	2015	23 patients with nonobstructive CAD undergoing IVUS	CD14⁺BAP⁺OCN⁺ monocytes	CD14⁺BAP⁺OCN⁺ monocytes correlate with the presence of a large necrotic core within coronary artery plaques	[70]
Meeuwsen et al.	2019	175 subjects undergoing carotid endarterectomy (85% symptomatic, 15% asymptomatic)	Total, classical, intermediate, and nonclassical monocytes	No association between monocyte subpopulations and plaque features of vulnerability. No association between monocyte subpopulations and major adverse cardiovascular events at 3 years of follow-up	[72]

CEUS: contrast-enhanced ultrasound; CAD: coronary artery disease; CVRF: cardiovascular risk factors; OCT: optical coherence tomography; IVUS: intravascular ultrasound.