Linking inflammation and thrombosis:Role of C-reactive protein

C-reactive protein(CRP) is a biomarker of inflammation.Increased plasma levels of CRP are associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction.However,the correlation between plasma CRP concentration and atherosclerotic plaque burden is poor.Based on these observations,it has been hypothesized that CRP increases the risk of myocardial infarction by promoting thrombosis.This article reviews available data that link enhanced CRP expression to increased risk of thrombosis,with a focus on the effects of CRP on hemostasis,platelet function,and fibrinolysis.Overall,the available data support the hypothesis that CRP is an important mechanistic link between inflammation and throm bosis.

The plasminogen activating system in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease

Dementia is a clinical syndrome that affects approximately 47 million people worldwide and is characterized by progressive and irreversible decline of cognitive,behavioral and sesorimotor functions.Alzheimer’s disease(AD)accounts for approximately 60–80%of all cases of dementia,and neuropathologically is characterized by extracellular deposits of insoluble amyloid-β(Aβ)and intracellular aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau.Significantly,although for a long time it was believed that the extracellular accumulation of Aβwas the culprit of the symptoms observed in these patients,more recent studies have shown that cognitive decline in people suffering this disease is associated with soluble Aβ-induced synaptic dysfunction instead of the formation of insoluble Aβ-containing extracellular plaques.These observations are translationally relevant because soluble Aβ-induced synaptic dysfunction is an early event in AD that precedes neuronal death,and thus is amenable to therapeutic interventions to prevent cognitive decline before the progression to irreversible brain damage.The plasminogen activating(PA)system is an enzymatic cascade that triggers the degradation of fibrin by catalyzing the conversion of plasminogen into plasmin via two serine proteinases:tissue-type plasminogen activator(tPA)and urokinase-type plasminogen activator(uPA).Experimental evidence reported over the last three decades has shown that tPA and uPA play a role in the pathogenesis of AD.However,these studies have focused on the ability of these plasminogen activators to trigger plasmin-induced cleavage of insoluble Aβ-containing extracellular plaques.In contrast,recent evidence indicates that activity-dependent release of uPA from the presynaptic terminal of cerebral cortical neurons protects the synapse from the deleterious effects of soluble Aβvia a mechanism that does not require plasmin generation or the cleavage of Aβfibrils.Below we discuss the role of the PA system in the pathogenesis of AD and the translational relevance of data published to this date.

Protein Microarrays for Quantitative Detection of PAI-1 in Serum

Objective： Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 （PAI-1）, one crucial component of the plasminogen activator system, is a major player in the pathogenesis of many vascular diseases as well as in cancer. High levels of PAI-1 in breast cancer tissue are associated with poor prognosis. The aim of this study is to evaluate rigorously the potential of serum PAI-1 concentration functioning as a general screening test in diagnostic or prognostic assays. Methods： A protein-microarray-based sandwich fluorescence immunoassay （FIA） was developed to detect PAI-1 in serum. Several conditions of this microarray-based FIA were optimized to establish an efficacious method. Serum specimens of 84 healthy women and 285 women with breast cancer were analyzed using the optimized FIA microarray. Results： The median serum PAI-1 level of breast cancer patients was higher than that of healthy women （109.7 ng/ml vs. 63.4 ng/ml）. Analysis of covariance revealed that PAI-1 levels of the two groups were significantly different （P0.001） when controlling for an age effect on PAI-1 levels. However, PAI-1 values in TNM stage I？IV patients respectively were not significantly different from each other. Conclusion： This microarray-based sandwich FIA holds potential for quantitative analysis of tumor markers such as PAI-1.

Role of major adipokines in hypertension:A literature review

The incidence and prevalence of hypertension are increasing as a consequence of the obesity epidemic.Adipocytes and their variety of factors make contributions to the long-term regulation of blood pressure.The pathophysiologic states of hypertension,including obesity,are regulated by the production of adipocytederived factors.Increased body mass index was closely linked to elevated blood pressure.Mostly the hypertensive subjects were obese as well as overweight.There are numerous adipokines,however,this review article only focuses on the major adipokines including chemerin,visfatin,retinol-binding protein 4,plasminogen activator inhibitor-1,monocyte chemotactic protein-1,omentin-1,lipocalin-2,vaspin,progranulin,complement c1q tumor necrosis factor-related protein,and nesfatin-1 role in the pathogenesis of hypertension.This review article concludes the significant association of major adipokines in the pathogenesis of hypertensives.New research should be focused on other newly reported adipokine roles in hypertensive subjects and the management of these adipokines in hypertensive subjects.The discovery of this information could result in the creation of antihypertensive medications,particularly those that focus on obesity-related hypertension.

Effects of epinephrine on angiogenesis-related gene expressions in cultured rat cardiomyocytes

Epinephrine is often used for the treatment of patients with heart failure, low cardiac output and cardiac arrest. It can acutely improve hemodynamic parameters; however, it does not seem to improve longer term clinical outcomes. Therefore, we hypothesized that epinephrine may induce unfavorable changes in gene expression of cardiomyocyte. Thus, we investigated effects of epinephrine exposure on the mediation or modulation of gene expression of cultured cardiomyocytes at a genome-wide scale. Our investigation revealed that exposure of cardiomyocytes to epinephrine in an in vitro environment can up-regulate the expression ofangiopoietin-2 gene （~ 2.1 times）, and down-regulate the gene expression of neuregulin 1 （-3.7 times）, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 （-2.4 times） and SPARC-related modular calcium-binding protein-2 （-4.5 times）. These changes suggest that epinephrine exposure may induce inhibition of angiogenesis-related gene expressions in cultured rat cardiomyocytes. The precise clinical significance of these changes in gene expression, which was induced by epinephrine exposure, warrants further experimental and clinical investigations.