Circulating levels of MCP-1 and eotaxin are not associated with presence of atherosclerosis or previous myocardial infarction

Abstract 

The chemokines are a family of signalling proteins that participate in regulation of the immune system and have been implicated in the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. Deleting the gene encoding the chemokine MCP-1 in mouse models of atherosclerosis reduces lipid lesion formation and circulating chemokines are upregulated in man immediately following myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary angioplasty. We have therefore investigated whether circulating levels of two chemokines (MCP-1 and eotaxin) differ between subjects with and without atherosclerosis. We have used three different methods of measuring the presence and extent of atherosclerosis in human subjects: duplex ultrasonography of the carotid arteries and clinical diagnosis of coronary heart disease on individuals from the general population and coronary angiography on patients with suspected heart disease. There was no difference in the levels of circulating MCP-1 or eotaxin, measured by ELISA, between subjects with and without atherosclerosis. Furthermore, any increase in circulating MCP-1 following acute MI must be short-lived, since chemokine levels were not different in subjects who had had an MI previously compared to those who had not. We conclude that although there may be a transient increase in circulating chemokine levels following coronary angioplasty, there is no difference in the levels of circulating MCP-1 or eotaxin in subjects with and without atherosclerosis.

Abbreviations: 1VD, 2VD, 3VD, subjects with 1, 2 or 3 of their coronary arteries heavily diseased (see Section 2), ANOVA, analysis of variance, CHD, coronary heart disease, ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, GLM, general linear model, HDL, cholesterol in the high-density lipoprotein fraction, LDL, cholesterol in the low-density lipoprotein fraction, MaGiCAD, the Metabonomics and Genomics in Coronary Artery Disease Study, MCP-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, MI, myocardial infarction, n.s., not statistically significant, NCA, subjects with normal coronary arteries, PAI-1, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, PTCA, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty

Keywords: Angiography, Chemokine, Coronary artery disease, Cytokine, Immunology