SearchPublisher and Institutes
You are here: Home :: Area NEM :: Medical science :: Human medicine
Ying Zhang, Xin Zhou, Joan C. Krepinsky, Chunhong Wang, Julien Segbo, Fang Zheng
Association study between fibronectin and coronary heart disease
Keywords: atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, fibronectin, gene polymorphism, plasma fibronectin
Fibronectin is a known chemoattractant for several cell types that play a role in the wound healing process, including fibroblasts, endothelial cells and macrophages. It also generates a scaffold that allows attachment of other extracellular matrix components. Large amounts of fibronectin have been detected in atherosclerotic plaques, suggesting that it may play a role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. To examine the possible involvement of fibronectin in the etiology of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease, we analyzed four polymorphisms in the human fibronectin gene and determined the plasma fibronectin levels in patients with coronary heart disease (n=109) and age- and gender-matched controls (n=123) in Chinese Han people. No significant positive association was observed between these polymorphisms and coronary heart disease. The levels of circulating plasma fibronectin, however, were significantly lower in patients with coronary heart disease (mean±SD 245±87 mg/L) compared with controls (354±88 mg/L) (p<0.001). The odds ratio (OR) for plasma fibronectin was 0.94 in a multivariate unconditional logistic regression model (OR=0.94, 95% CI 0.91–0.96, p<0.001). We conclude that, in our population, the four fibronectin gene polymorphisms detected are not associated with clinical coronary heart disease. Our data suggest that low circulating fibronectin levels might be a new marker of coronary heart disease.
Clinical Chemical Laboratory Medicine, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 1434-6621
Volume: 44, 01/2006
Pages: 37 - 42