Diet, gender, and plasma thrombomodulin

Abstract

We reported earlier about the lowering of serum total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and plasma factor VII coagulant activity (FVIIc), and the increase in plasma tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA) activity in young volunteers consuming a strictly controlled low-fat/high-fiber diet for a period of 8 months (9, 10). These observations suggest that the experimental diet had anti-atherogenic and anti-thrombogenic properties. The reduced FVIIc and raised t-PA activity might reflect a dietary mediated reduction in the extent of endothelial cell damage. Such an effect would namely be expected to be associated with less intimal tissue factor expression (and thus to less subsequent FVII activation), and to less endothelial plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI) secretion (and thus higher t-PA actvity). We were unable to detect any changes in plasma PA1 concentrations in the actual study, however (10). This might be due to the very large intraindividual variance of PA1 (11). TM may be a more sensitive and specific marker of endothelial cell damage. To further elucidate whether the experimental diet affected the extent of endothelial cell damage, we made a post-hoc estimation of plasma TM concentrations in participants of the study. In addition, we describe observations of TM in relation to gender and other hemostatic variables.