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. 2011 Dec;22(8):577-82.
doi: 10.1097/MCA.0b013e32834d3346.

Circulating neuregulin-1β levels vary according to the angiographic severity of coronary artery disease and ischemia

Carrie Anna Geisberg  1 , Guisong Wang, Radwan N Safa, Holly M Smith, Brent Anderson, Xu-Yang Peng, Brian Veerkamp, David X Zhao, Dana Blakemore, Chang Yu, Douglas B Sawyer
Affiliations

Circulating neuregulin-1β levels vary according to the angiographic severity of coronary artery disease and ischemia

Carrie Anna Geisberg et al. Coron Artery Dis. 2011 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading killer in the United States. Patients with severe CAD and ischemia have worse prognosis. Therefore expansion of biomarker research, to identify at-risk individuals and explain the complex biology between cardiovascular growth factors and atherosclerosis is needed. Neuregulin-1β (NRG-1β) is a myocardial stress activated growth and survival factor released from endocardial and endothelial cells. NRG-1β is essential for cardiovascular development and a regulator of angiogenesis. We postulated that plasma and serum levels of NRG-1β would vary in relation to CAD severity and the presence of stress-induced ischemia.

Methods: We measured serum and plasma levels of NRG-1β and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in 60 patients undergoing cardiac catheterization. CAD severity was calculated from angiographic results using a modified Duke jeopardy score.

Results: Serum NRG-1β (sNRG-1β), plasma NRG-1β (pNRG-1β), serum VEGF, and plasma VEGF were detectable in the majority of patients. The pNRG-1β levels were approximately two-fold higher than sNRG-1β. Both sNRG-1β and pNRG-1β correlated inversely with CAD severity. pNRG-1β levels were statistically higher in patients with stress-induced ischemia denoted by a positive myocardial perfusion imaging study that correlated with angiographic findings (P=0.02).

Conclusion: Both sNRG-1β and pNRG-1β correlated inversely with angiographic severity of CAD. pNRG-1β levels were two-fold higher than serum and were higher in patients with stress-induced ischemia. Therefore we conclude that plasma is the optimal source for the further exploration of the biological significance of NRG-1β as a biomarker of CAD severity and ischemia.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Boxplots with mean and standard deviation of sixty patients who underwent coronary angiogram to assess CAD severity. CAD severity was classified into four groups using the modified Duke jeopardy score (none, mild, moderate, and severe CAD). Both serum and plasma NRG-1β levels were inversely associated with CAD severity (sNRG-1β rho = 0.363, p = 0.004, and pNRG-1β rho = 0.261, p = 0.044, Spearman’s correlation).
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