ABSTRACT
[Objective]To study the effects of Caspase-1 specific inhibitor AC-YVAD-CMK on intimal hyperplasia after carotid artery balloon injury in rats and its possible mechanism.[Methods]A total of 33 male adult SD rats were randomly divided into sham group,balloon injury group and balloon injury+AC-YVAD-CMK group. Using the method of balloon injury to establish rat carotid ar?tery intimal hyperplasia animal model,rats were sacrificed and blood vessels were harvested 14 days after operation. Fifteen vascular segments embedded in OCT and the intima to media(I/M)area ratio of neointima was measured by hematoxylin-eosin(HE)staining;18 vascular segments were harvested and the expression of NLRP3 inflammasome,cleaved-Caspase-1,interleukin(IL)-1βand IL-18 were measured by Western blot.[Results]HE staining showed that AC-YVAD-CMK significantly inhibited the degree of intimal hyperplasia compared with the balloon injury group[(0.78 ± 0.13)vs(1.52 ± 0.14);P=0.000]. The expression of NLRP3 inflamma?some was increased in balloon injury group while the AC-YVAD-CMK attenuates the expression of NLRP3(P=0.009);The expres?sion of cleaved-Caspase-1 was in line with the expression of NLRP3(P=0.000). The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1βand IL-18 in balloon injury+AC-YVAD-CMK group were significantly lower than those in the balloon injury group(P=0.000).[Conclusion]AC-YVAD-CMK can attenuate intimal hyperplasia after balloon injury of carotid artery in rats,which might be related to its effect on inhibiting the activation of Caspase-1,which could affect the release of pro-inflammatory cytokine of IL-1βand IL-18.
ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the value of endothelial function of brachial artery in predicting coronary artery disease in elderly patients. Methods Flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD)and nitroglycerin mediated dilation (NMD) were measured by high-frequency ultrasound in 98 patients with coronary artery disease and 37 controls. All the subjects were diagnosed by coronary arteriography. They were divided into coronary artery blockages ＜ 50% subgroup, 50%-75%subgroup, ＞75% subgroup or coronary blockages in 0, 1, 2, 3 branch (es) subgroups. The correlations between FMD or NMD and the pathological extent or branches of coronary artery were studied and the predictive value of FMD and NMD were analyzed with ROC curve. Results In coronary artery disease group, FMD and NMD were significantly decreased as compared with the control group. They were closely related with coronary artery disease (r= -0. 54, -0. 52, P＜0.01), and were weakly correlated with severity and range of coronary arterial lesion (P＜0. 01).With ROC curve analysis, FMD and NMD could be used to predict coronary artery disease.Conclusions Endothelial function can be used as an index to predict coronary artery disease.