The roles of a novel anti-inflammatory factor, milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8, in patients with coronary atherosclerotic heart disease

Objective: Inflammation is now considered a main pathogenic factor in coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CHD), and it has a positive correlation with plaque vulnerability. A novel anti-inflammatory factor, milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8 (MFG-E8), has been reported as having prominent anti-inflammatory effects in sepsis. However, few studies have reported on the association between MFG-E8 and CHD. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the serum MFG-E8 concentrations in patients with different stages of CHD or without CHD. Then, we studied the associations among MFG-E8, Gensini score, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in Chinese patients with CHD to illustrate the role of MFG-E8 in CHD. Methods: A total of 176 controls and 295 patients with CHD were selected for this study. To evaluate CHD severity, we calculated the Gensini score for all of the subjects. Serum levels of MFG-E8 were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit; serum total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c), triglyceride (TG), and hs-CRP were detected by an automatic biochemistry analyzer; and fibrinogen (FIB) was analyzed with an automatic coagulation analyzer. Results: Compared with the controls, the CHD group had a lower level of MFG-E8 (673.20 +/- 112.34 ng/mL vs. 134.89 +/- 4.74 ng/mL, p < 0.001). The level of serum MFG-E8 in the acute myocardial infarction group (118.07 +/- 10.10 ng/mL) was significantly less than that in the stable angina group (p = 0.025). Further analysis showed that MFG-E8 had a negative association with the Gensini score and the hs-CRP level (r = -0.590, p < 0.001; r = -0.105, p = 0.022, respectively). In addition, multiple regression analysis of the association between MFG-E8 and the main cardiovascular risk factors in our cases showed that MFG-E8 had a negative association with hs-CRP and a positive association with LDL-c (all p < 0.05). Conclusion: The serum level of MFG-E8 was negatively associated with the severity of coronary artery stenosis and the risk of clinical events. Thus, MFG-E8 has the potential to be a marker of vascular complications. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.