RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF), for which age is an independent risk factor, is the most common persistent arrhythmia. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1-induced protein (MCPIP), a transcription factor that induces a series of inflammation and cell death procedures, has been indicated to cause cardiomyocyte death in ischemic cardiomyopathy. The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between age-related AF and MCPIP. METHODS: A total of 1,084 participants were included in this study, including 542 AF patients and 542 non-AF controls. Their medical histories were collected and analyzed. Moreover, blood samples were collected, and ELISA tests for expression of the inflammatory factor MCPIP and the fibrosis biomarkers pro-collagen type III N-terminal peptide (PIIINP) and type I collagen C-terminal telopeptide (ICTP) were conducted. Finally, a correlation analysis of these inflammatory factors and biomarkers was performed based on the ELISA results. RESULTS: We compared the echocardiography results of AF patients and found that the left ventricular ejection fraction and left atrial appendage velocity decreased with age (p < 0.05). Moreover, ELISA analysis of these samples showed that the expression of MCPIP was the highest in elderly patients with AF (p < 0.05), and there was no significant difference in expression between adult AF patients and elderly controls (p > 0.05). Finally, the correlation analysis demonstrated that the expressions of MCPIP, PIIINP, and ICTP were positively correlated in the elderly AF patient group, the adult AF group, and the elderly control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: MCPIP expression was higher in age-related AF than in the other patient groups and it was associated with AF-induced fibrosis.