The plasma concentration of
VE-cadherin was measured in peripheral blood (femoral artery) and the coronary sinus of 24 patients with acute
myocardial infarction (AMI), 26 with
stable angina pectoris (AP), 18 with old
myocardial infarction (OMI), and 30 control subjects (Control) who had no
coronary artery stenosis on angiography. For the patients with AMI, blood samples were obtained in the acute (day 1) and chronic (day 21) phases. The plasma concentration of
VE-cadherin was measured by
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay. The correlation between the plasma
VE-cadherin concentration and the Gensini score was also determined as an index of the severity of
coronary atherosclerosis. The plasma concentrations of
VE-cadherin (ng/ml) in both the peripheral and coronary sinus blood were higher in patients with AMI, AP, and OMI than in the control subjects, and were similar in the 3 groups with
coronary artery disease (femoral artery: AMI 5.1+/-2.5, AP 4.7+/-2.4, OMI 4.5+/-3.3, Control 2.6+/-2.3; coronary sinus: AMI 5.6+/-2.6, AP 5.0+/-2.3, OMI 5.0+/-2.9, Control 2.4+/-2.1, respectively). Plasma
VE-cadherin concentrations were higher in the coronary sinus than peripheral blood samples in patients with AMI (p<0.01), AP (p<0.01), and OMI (p<0.05). The plasma
VE-cadherin concentration was the same in the acute and chronic phases in patients with AMI. In the 3 groups of patients with
coronary disease, both the peripheral plasma
VE-cadherin concentration and the coronary sinus concentration correlated with the Gensini score (r=0.32, p<0.01 and r=0.42, p<0.001, respectively). Multiple regression analysis revealed that the plasma
VE-cadherin concentration predicted the Gensini score independently of sex, age,
hypertension,
diabetes mellitus, smoking, and the
lipid profiles.
CONCLUSION: