Transcriptomic Analysis Identifies Differentially Expressed Genes Associated with Vascular Cuffing and Chronic Inflammation Mediating Early Thrombosis in Arteriovenous Fistula

Arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is vascular access created for hemodialysis in end-stage renal disease patients. AVF creation causes increased blood flow in the outflow vein with increased pressure. Increased blood flow, blood volume, and shear stress causes outward remodeling so that the outflow vein can withstand the increased pressure. Outward remodeling of the vein involved in AVF is necessary for AVF maturation, however, inward remodeling due to excessive neointimal hyperplasia (NIH) and chronic inflammation may end up with vessel thrombosis and AVF maturation failure. Early thrombosis of the vessel may be due to the luminal factors including NIH and chronic inflammation or due to chronic inflammation of the adventitial due to perivascular cuffing. Inflammation may either be due to an immune response to the vascular injury during AVF creation or injury to the surrounding muscles and fascia. Several studies have discussed the role of inflammation in vascular thrombosis due to intimal injury during AVF creation, but there is limited information on the role of inflammation due to surrounding factors like a muscle injury. The concept of perivascular cuffing has been reported in the nervous system, but there is no study of perivascular cuffing in AVF early thrombosis. We performed the bulk RNA sequencing of the femoral arterial tissue and contralateral arteries as we found thrombosed arteries after AVF creation. RNA sequencing revealed several significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to chronic inflammation and perivascular cuffing, including tripartite motif-containing protein 55 (TRIM55). Additionally, DEGs like myoblast determination protein 1 (MYOD1) increased after muscle injury and relates to skeletal muscle differentiation, and network analysis revealed regulation of various genes regulating inflammation via MYOD1. The findings of this study revealed multiple genes with increased expression in the AVF femoral artery and may provide potential therapeutic targets or biomarkers of early thrombosis in AVF maturation failure. Thus, not only the luminal factors but also the surrounding factors mediating vascular cuffing contribute to vessel thrombosis and AVF failure via early thrombosis, and targeting the key regulatory factors may have therapeutic potential.