Relationship between interferon regulatory factor expression and coronary artery disease

ABSTRACT

To investige the relationship between expression levels of interferon regulatory factors [IRF] in patients with coronary artery disease. Prospective case-control study. Department of cardiology, Puren Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China [PRC]. Between October 2010 and July 2011, 106 patients [aged 37-71 years] were enrolled. Patients were assigned to four groups acute myocardial infarction [AMI] [n = 28], stable angina [SA] [n = 26], unstable angina [UA] [n= 26], and control group [without CAD, n=26]. Blood samples were drawn from all the patients via the antecubital vein following a 12 h fasting period [HDL-C], low density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C] and high sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP] were measured. The mRNA and protein expression levels of IRF-1, IRF-2, IRF-4 and IRF-8 in each patient were measured using PCR and western blotting. Serum levels of IL-12 and IFN-gamma were detected by ELISA. Within both the AMI and UA groups, IL-12 and IFN-gamma were significantly increased compared with SA and control patients. Both the mRNA and protein expression levels of IRF-1, IRF-2 and IRF-8 in the AMI and UA groups were significantly higher than those in the SA and control groups. There was no significant difference between the SA and control groups. The increase in expression levels of IRF-1, IRF-2 and IRF-8 may be associated with atherosclerotic plaque formation and rupture, which are seen in AMI and UA