Correlation between eNOS and the Heath-Edwards pulmonary vessel pathologic grade in CHD associated with pulmonary hypertension

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in lung tissue of patients with left-to-right shunt congenital heart disease (CHD) associated with pulmonary hypertension (PH) and its correlation with the Heath-Edwards pulmonary vessel pathologic grade of PH.Methods CHD patients were divided into different groups according to Heath-Edwards grading.Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemical SP were employed to detect the levels of eNOS protein and mRNA in the lung tissue.Results The average expression levels of eNOS mRNA were 0.2973 ±0.1100,0.1620 ±0.1000,0.1440 ±0.1300 and 0.6444 ±0.1700 in patients with PH Ⅰ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ and non-PH.The expression levels of eNOS mRNA and protein were significantly decreased in patients with PH as compared with those in patients without PH (P ＜0.01 or P ＜0.05).There was a negative correlation between the expression levels of eNOS mRNA or protein and the grades of PH (r=-0.714,r=-0.580,P＜0.01).Conclusion The inhibition activity of eNOS may be associated with the PH,and eNOS may play an important role in the development and acceleration of PH with left-toright shunt CHD. Key words: Congenital heart disease; Pulmonary hypertension; eNOS