ABSTRACT
AIM:To explore the change of antithrombin Ⅲ( AT-Ⅲ) in the patients with atherosclerotic cere-bral infarction .METHODS:Chromogenic substrate assay was used to measure the activity of AT-Ⅲ in 55 patients with atherosclerotic cerebral infarction and 55 healthy controls , and the correlation analysis was applied to determine the AT-Ⅲactivity with the severity of damage in central nervous system and general biochemical parameters .The levels of TNF-αand IL-6 in the plasma were detected by ELISA .Immunocomplex in the plasma was measured by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). The number and phenotype of the monocytes in peripheral blood were analyzed by flow cytometry .ELISA was also applied to determine the secretion of TNF-αand IL-6 from the monocytes after the stimulation of immunocomplex .The expression of AT-Ⅲin human brain vascular endothelial cells after the stimulation of TNF-αand IL-6 was observed by Western blotting . RESULTS:The activity of AT-Ⅲsignificantly decreased in the patients with atherosclerotic cerebral infarction , and nega-tively correlated with the damage degree of nervous system function , systolic pressure , diastolic pressure , glucose , choles-terol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and homocysteine , while positively correlated with high-density lipo-protein.In addition, the plasma levels of TNF-αand IL-6 increased significantly , accompanied with the enhancement of immunocomplex level .The numbers of CD14 + CD16 + and CD14 + CD32 + monocytes in peripheral blood were not changed , while CD14 +CD64 +monocytes increased obviously .The secretion of TNF-αand IL-6 by monocytes were signifi-cantly enhanced after stimulated with immunocomplex , while the protein expression of AT-Ⅲ in the human brain vascular endothelial cells was down-regulated after co-incubated with TNF-αor IL-6.CONCLUSION:Decreased AT-Ⅲactivity in the patients with atherosclerotic cerebral infarction is one of the risk factors of cerebral infarction , and related with the dis-ease severity .The production of pro-inflammatory cytokines through immunocomplex from CD 14 +CD64 +monocytes may be involved in the mechanism .Improvement of AT-Ⅲactivity may protect against cerebral ischemia .