Differential expression of chemokines, risk of stable coronary heart disease, and correlation with established cardiovascular risk markers.

Objective: We investigated the association of several chemokines with the risk of stable coronary heart disease (CHD) in a large case-control study after adjustment for other established risk factors. Furthermore, we analyzed their correlation with various acute-phase proteins, inflammation-associated cytokines, and an adhesion molecule.

Methods And Results: We included 312 patients aged 40 to 68 years with angiographically confirmed and stable CHD and 472 age- and gender-matched controls in this study. The main outcome measure was the odds ratio (OR) for CHD associated with increased levels of interferon (INF)-inducible protein of 10 kd (IP-10), interleukin (IL)-8, regulated on activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), macrophage inflammation protein 1alpha (MIP-1alpha), or eotaxin determined by rigidly evaluated sandwich ELISAs. Serum levels of IP-10 and IL-8 were higher, and serum levels of RANTES were lower in CHD patients when compared with age- and gender-matched controls. In addition, values in the second and top tertile of IP-10 and IL-8 were associated with an increased OR for CHD when compared with values in the bottom tertile [OR for IP-10 (top tertile) was 2.62 (95% CI, 1.79 to 3.85) in the age- and gender-adjusted model and 1.93 (95% CI, 1.23 to 3.04) in the fully adjusted model, and for IL-8, the OR was 1.77 (95% CI, 1.20 to 2.59) and 1.53 (95% CI, 0.98 to 2.39), respectively]; increased RANTES values were associated with a lower OR for CHD [OR, 0.67 (95% CI, 0.47 to 0.96) and 0.61 (95% CI, 0.40 to 0.94)]. Furthermore, positive correlations of IP-10 and IL-8 with several acute-phase proteins or inflammation-associated cytokines were evident, and positive correlations for IP-10 plasma viscosity and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 were also present.

Conclusions: The current study suggests that there may be no universal upregulation of chemokines in CHD-associated inflammation but different upregulation of IP-10 and IL-8 versus downregulation of RANTES; there was no clear disease association for MCP-1, MIP-1alpha, or eotaxin.