gene as a biomarker for coronary heart disease risk in postmenopausal Thai women.

BACKGROUND

Estrogen is an important ovarian hormone with anti-atherogenic and cardioprotective effects. Postmenopausal women have lower estrogen levels, associated with significantly higher risks of coronary heart disease (CHD) and CHD-related death. Effective biomarkers for the diagnosis, prediction, and treatment of CHD are needed to address this problem and thus reduce the mortality due to CHD in postmenopausal women. We recently reported that the and genes may be feasible synergistic biomarkers for CHD risk in Thai men with hyperlipidemia. The gene encodes pro-platelet basic protein (PPBP) from activated platelets, and encodes human neutrophil peptides (HNP) 1-3, mainly produced by activated neutrophils. Both platelets and neutrophils are involved in chronic inflammation during the development of atherogenesis and CHD. This study investigated the potential roles of and and their proteins as biomarkers for CHD risk in postmenopausal Thai women.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study enrolled 90 postmenopausal Thai women, including 12 healthy controls (N), 18 patients with hyperlipidemia (H), and 21 patients diagnosed with CHD. The remaining 39 women were receiving cholesterol-lowering drugs for hyperlipidemia (HD) were excluded from the study. All CHD patients underwent coronary bypass grafting or coronary angioplasty. and mRNA expression levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from heparinized blood were determined by quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Levels of PPBP and HNP-1-3 proteins in corresponding plasma samples were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Differences in parameters were compared among groups and correlations between parameters and clinical manifestations were analyzed.

RESULTS

PPBP mRNA and protein levels were significantly increased in the CHD group compared with the N and H groups. In contrast, mRNA and HNP-1-3 protein levels did not differ significantly among the groups. None of the levels were associated with any of the clinical parameters analyzed in this study.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate that gene and protein expression levels of PPBP, but not , and HNP-1-3, may be feasible biomarkers for assessing CHD risk in postmenopausal Thai women with hyperlipidemia.