Circulating Levels of IL-35 and Gene Expression of FoxP3 in Coronary Artery Disease: Is There Any Interplay Between Them and 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3?

BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate interleukin-35 (IL-35) serum levels and the forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients compared with the non-CAD group. Also, we examined the possible relationship between gene expression of FoxP3 and serum levels of IL-35 with several CAD-related clinical parameters. METHODS: This study was conducted on 40 men with CAD and 40 men with a normal coronary artery. The gene expression of FoxP3 was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR). The serum concentrations of IL-35 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: FoxP3 gene expression was significantly decreased in patients compared to controls (p = 0.01). Serum concentrations of IL-35 and 25(OH)D3 were significantly reduced in patients in comparison with the control group (both, p < 0.001), and reduction of IL-35 showed an independent association with CAD. IL-35 levels had a significant positive correlation with serum 25(OH)D3 (r = 0.266, p = 0.044) in the whole population. Moreover, there was an inverse correlation between the FoxP3 expression and CAD severity in CAD patients (r = -0.372, p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: It appears that reduced mRNA expression of FoxP3 and circulating level of IL-35 are of significance in the context of CAD pathogenesis. However, more studies are required to elucidate underlying mechanisms.

Circulating level of CTRP1 in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): is it through insulin resistance?

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered as one of the most common liver diseases. It is robustly linked to obesity and insulin resistance and is regarded as hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Adipokines are involved in the pathophysiology of liver diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the plasma concentrations of CTRP1 (complement-C1q TNF-related protein 1) in 22 patients with NAFLD, 22 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), 22 patients with NAFLD+T2DM and 21 healthy controls, as well as their correlation with the level of metabolic and hepatic parameters. Plasma concentration of CTRP1 was measured with ELISA method. Plasma concentration of CTRP1 in patients with NAFLD, T2DM and NAFLD+T2DM were significantly higher than healthy subjects (p<0.0001). Moreover, we observed significant positive correlations between plasma level of CTRP1 and fasting blood glucose (FBG) (p<0.001), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (p<0.001), body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.001), alanine amino transferase (ALT) (p = 0.002), gamma glutamyl transferase (γ-GT) (p<0.001) and liver stiffness (LS) (p<0.001). Our results indicate the strong association of CTRP1 with insulin resistance in NAFLD. Also, it seems that CTRP1 can be considered as an emerging biomarker for NAFLD, however, more studies are necessary to unravel the role of CTRP1 in NAFLD pathogenesis.