Abnormal levels of serum anti-elastin antibodies in patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis.

Background And Objective: A correlation between the levels of antibodies to alpha-elastin (alpha-AEAb) and tropoelastin (tropo-AEAb) and the corresponding peptide concentration is found in human serum in health and disease. Serum elastin peptide and anti-elastin antibodies (AEAb) levels are age-related and vary with the stages of atherosclerotic vascular damage. This study aims to determine if elastin metabolism (assessed by the ratio of tropo-AEAb to alpha-AEAb) differs in patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis versus subjects with asymptomatic stenosis.