Associations between measures of vascular structure and function and systemic circulating blood markers in humans.

Lisa M Cotie,Austin J Cameron,Alison S Mcfadden,Stuart M Phillips,Maureen J Macdonald,Greg M Mcgill,Katharine D Currie

doi:10.14814/phy2.12982

Abstract

Examination of relationships between systemic markers and functional measures of arterial structure and function may assist in determining alternative indices of vascular regulation and designing and evaluating interventions to improve arterial structure and function. Twenty young healthy individuals, 20 older healthy men, and 26 individuals with coronary artery disease (CAD), comprising a spectrum of vascular health, participated. Systemic markers of vascular structure and function included: pro‐collagen type I C‐peptide (PIP) – marker of collagen synthesis, C‐telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX) – marker of collagen degradation, endothelin‐1 (ET‐1) ‐ vasoconstrictor, and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) – inflammatory marker. Functional measures of arterial structure and function included carotid artery distensibility and brachial artery flow‐mediated dilation (FMD). Moderate positive relationships were observed between carotid distensibility and CTX and PIP (r = 0.57, P < 0.0001 and r = 0.47, P < 0.0001). A negative correlation exists between ET‐1 and FMD (r = −0.44, P = 0.0004); however, no relationship was observed between IL‐6 and FMD (P = 0.25). Over a broad range of vascular health, relationships were observed between markers of type I collagen turnover and arterial stiffness and between a marker of vasoconstriction and endothelial function. These results indicate that regulatory links, between the indices examined, exist. Therefore, monitoring systemic markers rather than functional vascular measures, may provide sufficient information about vascular health and should be considered in the design and evaluation of vascular interventions.

Highlights

An understanding of the relationship between blood markers linked to vascular regulation and non-invasive tests of vascular structure and vascular function may provide useful information about the strength of the mechanistic links between these indices and the feasibility of using blood markers as surrogates for functional assessments
The most important findings in this study were that over a broad range of vascular health, relationships were observed between markers of type I collagen turnover and functional measures of arterial stiffness and between a marker of vasoconstriction and a measure of endothelial function
We chose to study relationships between vascular health and systemic markers in various populations to obtain a large range in our functional indices of arterial structure and function

Summary

Introduction

An understanding of the relationship between blood markers linked to vascular regulation and non-invasive tests of vascular structure and vascular function may provide useful information about the strength of the mechanistic links between these indices and the feasibility of using blood markers as surrogates for functional assessments. A measure of arterial stiffness, used to represent central aortic stiffness, is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in healthy and clinical populations (Blacher et al 1998; Barenbrock et al 2002). Relationships between systemic markers of type I collagen synthesis and degradation have been seen with indices of both central (Ishikawa et al 2005; McNulty et al 2006; Stakos et al 2010) and peripheral artery stiffness (Ishikawa et al 2005; Chatzikyriakou et al 2008). There are conflicting reports on the direction and significance of this relationship in populations with differing levels of impairment in their vascular structure and function (Ishikawa et al 2005; McNulty et al 2006; Chatzikyriakou et al 2008; Stakos et al 2010; Dellegrottaglie et al 2011)

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Conclusion