Inflammation-sensitive proteins and erythrocyte aggregation in atherothrombosis.

OBJECTIVE: To find the relative contribution of various inflammation-sensitive proteins including fibrinogen, immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM and IgA), ceruloplasmin and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) to the induction and/or maintenance of enhanced erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation in the peripheral blood of individuals with atherothrombotic risk factors. METHODS: The degree of erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation was determined by a simple slide test and image analysis. In addition, we measured various inflammation-sensitive protein levels including fibrinogen, ceruloplasmin, immunoglobulins and hs-CRP in a group of 234 individuals with atherothrombotic risk factors and healthy ones. Pearson partial correlations and multiple linear regression analysis were performed. RESULTS: Fibrinogen was found to be the major protein contributing to the enhanced erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation, explaining 30% of the model. Fibrinogen and IgG together explained 32.4% of the model. Other inflammation-sensitive proteins did not reach statistical significance and were excluded from the model. CONCLUSIONS: Among inflammation-sensitive proteins measured in our cohort, fibrinogen is the dominant contributor to erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation in the peripheral blood of individuals with atherothrombotic risk factors and healthy ones. These findings may pave the way for the development of therapeutic strategies directed at the attenuation of erythrocyte aggregability in individuals with atherothrombosis.

The erythrosense as a real-time biomarker to reveal the presence of enhanced red blood cell aggregability in atherothrombosis.

Both anemia and inflammation might be present in individuals with atherothrombosis. We have evaluated the eventual influence of these 2 variables on the degree of erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation in the peripheral blood of 583 women and 402 men with various atherothrombotic risk factors and vascular events. It turned out that both anemia and inflammation (highly sensitive C-reactive protein concentrations) influence the degree of cell adhesiveness/aggregation and that there is no interaction between them. Thus, the degree of erythrocyte adhesiveness/aggregation might have the diagnostic advantage of being enhanced in individuals with atherothrombosis who have inflammation and no anemia as well as those who have anemia and no inflammation. These findings might help to turn a phenomenon of hemorheological relevance into a diagnostic tool for the detection of individuals at risk of an acute ischemic event.