Left Ventricular Dysfunction and CXCR3 Ligands in Hypertension: From Animal Experiments to a Population-Based Pilot Study

PLoS One. 2015 Oct 27;10(10):e0141394. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141394. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Detecting left ventricular (LV) dysfunction at an early stage is key in addressing the heart failure epidemic. In proteome profiling experiments in mice subjected either to aortic banding or sham, the circulating CXCR3 ligands monokine induced by interferon-γ (MIG) and interferon-γ inducible protein 10 (IP10) were 5 to 40 fold up-regulated at eight weeks. We assessed the diagnostic value of circulating NT-pro BNP and CXCR3 ligands (MIG, IP10, Interferon-inducible T-cell alpha chemo-attractant [I-TAC]) in patients with hypertension (≥140/90 mm Hg) associated with subclinical (n = 19) or symptomatic (n = 16) diastolic LV dysfunction on echocardiography and healthy controls. NT-pro BNP, MIG, IP10, I-TAC all increased (p ≤ 0.014) across the categories of worsening left ventricular dysfunction. In patients with symptomatic disease, MIG, IP10, and I-TAC increased 210% (p = 0.015), 140% (p = 0.007) and 120% (p = 0.035) more than NT-pro BNP. The optimal discrimination limits, obtained by maximizing Youden's index were 246 pmol/L, 65 pg/mL, 93 pg/mL, and 24 pg/mL, respectively. The odds ratios associated with the four biomarkers were significant (p ≤ 0.010), ranging from 4.00 for IP10 to 9.69 for MIG. With adjustment for NT-pro BNP, the CXCR3 ligands retained significance (p ≤ 0.028). Adding optimized thresholds for the CXCR3 ligands to NT-pro BNP enhanced (p ≤ 0.014) the integrated discrimination improvement and the net reclassification improvement. In conclusion, congruent with the concept that inflammation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of LV dysfunction, MIG, IP10 and I-TAC add diagnostic accuracy over and beyond NT-pro BNP.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Blood Pressure
  • Chemokine CXCL10 / blood*
  • Chemokine CXCL11 / blood*
  • Chemokine CXCL9 / blood*
  • Chemokine CXCL9 / genetics
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hypertension / blood*
  • Hypertension / genetics
  • Hypertension / physiopathology
  • Inflammation / blood
  • Inflammation / genetics
  • Inflammation / physiopathology
  • Ligands
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Natriuretic Peptide, Brain / blood
  • Peptide Fragments / blood
  • Receptors, CXCR3 / blood
  • Receptors, CXCR3 / genetics
  • Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / blood*
  • Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / genetics
  • Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / physiopathology

Substances

  • CXCL10 protein, human
  • CXCL11 protein, human
  • CXCR3 protein, human
  • Chemokine CXCL10
  • Chemokine CXCL11
  • Chemokine CXCL9
  • Ligands
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Receptors, CXCR3
  • pro-brain natriuretic peptide (1-76)
  • Natriuretic Peptide, Brain

Grants and funding

The experimental work was partly supported by the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (http://www.ctmm.nl; TRIUMPH grant 01C-103) and the Dutch Heart Foundation. The European Union (HEALTH-2011.2.4.2-2-EU-MASCARA, HEALTH-F7-305507 HOMAGE and the European Research Council Advanced Researcher Grant-2011-294713-EPLORE), the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen, Ministry of the Flemish Community, Brussels, Belgium (G.0881.13 and G.088013), and the International Zinc and Lead Research Organization currently support the Studies Coordinating Centre in Leuven.