Cardiotrophin-1 in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

Problem statement: Myocardial infarction is the combined result of environmental and personal factors. Prothrombotic factors might play an important role in this phenomenon. Inflammation plays a pivotal role in atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), a member of the IL-6 family of cytokines, was identified as a growth factor for cardiac myocytes that induces cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and stimulates cardiac fibroblasts, protects myocytes from cell death. This study was designed to investigate whether plasma concentration of Cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), in patients who had the first acute myocardial infarction and to analyze their relationship with traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Approach: This study was carried out on 45 patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) in their first 24 h of admission as case group and 36 healthy matched individuals were studied as the control. Plasma level of cardiotrophin-1 was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and the results were compared. Results: Plasma CT-1 levels in the patients with AMI on admission 615.279±5.109 pmol L^-1 were significantly higher than those in the control group 534.767±6.750 pmol L^-1 (p = 0.001). Plasma CT-1 level was not correlated with diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, sex, age and smoking. Conclusion: Our findings suggested that high plasma CT-1 level in patients with AMI is indicative of hypercoagulable state that is not related to the traditional cardiovascular risk factors.