Original article Is Hsp27 a marker of myocardial ischaemia?

Abstract

Background: Heat shock protein (Hsp) 27 expression in cardiomyocytes increases in response to ischaemia. The extracellular release of Hsp27 from cardiomyocytes is proportional to its intracellular levels.
Aim: To assess the influence of significant coronary artery disease (CAD), which by definition results in chronic myocardial ischaemia, on blood serum levels of Hsp27.
Methods: Blood serum levels of Hsp27 in 62 patients with at least 50% lumen diameter narrowing in at least one main epicardial coronary artery on angiography and in 21 controls with normal coronaries were measured.
Results: Patients with CAD tended to have higher serum level of Hsp27 than controls [0.463 (0.158-0.809) vs. 0.184 (0.099-0.337) ng/ml, p = 0.084]. Serum Hsp27 level in patients with CAD affecting more than a single vessel was significantly increased [0.529 (0.192-1.004) ng/ml] compared with controls (p = 0.035) and with one artery narrowed [0.276 (0.087-0.549) ng/ml, p = 0.041]. No correlation between Hsp27 serum levels and severity of coronary narrowings assessed by Gensini score was found (r = 0.21, p = 0.11).
Conclusions: Serum level of Hsp27 seems to be a potential marker of myocardial ischaemia caused by advanced 2- or 3-vessel CAD.