2010 Volume 61 Issue 1 Pages 58-64
Adipose tissue secretes various bioactive molecules (adipokines), and apelin is one kind of adipokines. Recently, it was shown that plasma apelin level is decreased in patients with chronic heart failure, and apelin might play an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. However, plasma apelin level in coronary artery disease (CAD) or other heart disease such as valvular heart disease (VHD) has not been elucidated. We enrolled 31 patients with CAD and 14 patients with VHD who underwent elective cardiac surgery. We also examined plasma apelin level in 20 healthy subjects (Control). Blood samples were obtained before the surgery. Paired samples of visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues were harvested during surgery. Plasma apelin level was lower in both CAD and VHD than in Control. When compared between CAD and VHD, it was lower in CAD than in VHD, and was not affected by treatment with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) which was shown to increase adiponectin level. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was lower in CAD than in VHD. There was no correlation between plasma apelin level and LVEF. Gene expression of apelin in visceral adipose tissue was higher than that in subcutaneous adipose tissue, but it was similar between two groups. These suggest that plasma apelin level was decreased in patients with cardiac diseases, especially in those with CAD. Its role in the pathophysiology of CAD remains to be elucidated.
