ABSTRACT
Adhesion of leukocytes to endothelial cells via cell adhesion molecules is thought to be pivotal in the initiation of atherosclerosis. This study was designed to determine the value of circulating cell adhesion molecules as a predictors of coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis. This study was conducted on 25 patients with coronary heart disease [CHD], 21 patients with carotid artery atherosclerosis [CAA] and 20 healthy individuals served as control group. The levels of serum soluble[s] adhesion molecules: E-selectin [sE-selectin], intracellular adhesion molecule-l [sICAM-1] and vascular cell adhesion molecule-l [sVCAM-1] were measured in addition to the serum lipids, total cholesterol and triglyceride, HDL-c and LDL-c. The concentration of sE-selectin was significantly higher in the patient groups when compared with the control subjects [CHD 34.9 +/- 19.2 ng/ml; CAA 43.0 +/- 16.7 ng/ml vs. control 18.5 +/- 7.4 ng/ml, p<0.05 and p< 0.001 respectivly]. While there were non significant statistical difference between CHD and CAA [p> 0.05]. The serum level of sICAM-1 was significantly higher in CHD than control [p< 0.05], while there were non significant changes in their values in CAA and control [CHD 318 +/- 85.1 ng/ml, CAA 292.3 +/- 64.2 ng/ml vs. control 240 +/- 68.1 ng/ml]. A significant increase was found in sVCAM-1 among the patient groups when compared with the control [CHD 535 + 227.1ng/ml, CAA 445 + 139.6 ng/ml, control 115+19.7 ng/ml p < 0.001 and p< 0.01 for CHD and CAA respectivly]. The levels of the studied serum lipids were significantly increased in the patient groups when compared with the control [p < 0.001]. When these serum lipids were correlated with the studied adhesion molecules, there were positive correlation between the sE-selectin and LDL-c [r = 0.5, p < 0.02], between sICAM-1 and both of LDL-c [r = 0.51, p< 0.02] and TG [r = 0.39, p<0.05] and between sVCAM-1 and TG [r = 0.62, p< 0.01]. In conclusion, the increase of sE-selectin, sICAM-1 and sVCAM-I levels in patients with CHD and CAA suggests that they would be of beneficial value as markers for preclinical prediction of atherosclerosis and CHD