Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Department of Medicine, Emory Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute, Division of Cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2020;74(2):659-668. doi: 10.3233/JAD-191063.
Circulating progenitor cells (CPC) have been associated with memory function and cognitive impairment in healthy adults. However, it is unclear whether such associations also exist in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).
To assess the association between CPCs and memory performance among individuals with CAD.
We assessed cognitive function in 509 patients with CAD using the verbal and visual Memory subtests of the Wechsler memory scale-IV and the Trail Making Test parts A and B. CPCs were enumerated with flow cytometry as CD45med/CD34+ blood mononuclear cells, those co-expressing other epitopes representing populations enriched for hematopoietic and endothelial progenitors.
After adjusting for demographic and cardiovascular risk factors, lower number of endothelial progenitor cell counts were independently associated with lower visual and verbal memory scores (p for all < 0.05). There was a significant interaction in the magnitude of this association with race (p < 0.01), such that the association of verbal memory scores with endothelial progenitor subsets was present in Black but not in non-Black participants. No associations were present with the hematopoietic progenitor-enriched cells or with the Trail Making Tests.
Lower numbers of circulating endothelial progenitor cells are associated with cognitive impairment in patients with CAD, suggesting a protective effect of repair/regeneration processes in the maintenance of cognitive status. Impairment of verbal memory function was more strongly associated with lower CPC counts in Black compared to non-Black participants with CAD. Whether strategies designed to improve regenerative capacity will improve cognition needs further study.
循环祖细胞（CPC）与健康成年人的记忆功能和认知障碍有关。然而，在冠状动脉疾病（CAD）患者中，这种关联是否存在尚不清楚。
评估 CAD 患者中 CPC 与记忆功能之间的关系。
我们使用韦氏记忆量表-IV 的言语和视觉记忆子测验以及连线测试 A 和 B 评估了 509 例 CAD 患者的认知功能。通过流式细胞术计数 CD45med/CD34+血液单核细胞作为 CPC，这些细胞共同表达其他表型，代表富含造血和内皮祖细胞的群体。
在校正人口统计学和心血管危险因素后，内皮祖细胞计数较低与视觉和言语记忆评分较低独立相关（p 均<0.05）。这种关联的幅度与种族存在显著的交互作用（p<0.01），即内皮祖细胞亚群与言语记忆评分的关联仅存在于黑人参与者中，而非黑人参与者中则不存在。与造血祖细胞富集细胞或连线测试无关联。
CAD 患者循环内皮祖细胞数量较少与认知障碍有关，提示修复/再生过程在维持认知状态方面具有保护作用。与 CAD 的非黑人参与者相比，黑人参与者中，较低的 CPC 计数与言语记忆功能障碍的相关性更强。旨在提高再生能力的策略是否会改善认知功能，还需要进一步研究。
