title: Correlations between plasma levels of a fibronectin isoform subpopulation and C-reactive protein in patients with systemic inflammatory disease.
abstract: Surrogate markers to detect vasculitic processes prior to organ compromise are lacking. To determine if specific populations among the fibronectin (FN) family of alternatively spliced proteins correlate with parameters of vasculitis in at-risk patients, we retrospectively evaluated the association of plasma levels of total FN (TFN) and FN bearing the alternatively spliced EIIIA segment (A(+)FN) with clinical vasculitis status and with levels of two putative vasculitis markers (C-reactive protein (CRP) and von Willebrand factor) in a previously studied cohort of 27 patients with systemic inflammatory disease. We found that the percentage of TFN composed by A(+)FN (%A(+)) and A(+)FN, but not TFN, correlated with plasma levels of CRP, the prototypic inflammation biomarker used to detect vasculitis. These findings suggest that different FNs may confer distinct clinical information, and that their simultaneous measurement merits further investigation in our efforts to identify soluble biomarker systems to detect vasculitis.
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthy Aging, Department of Internal Medicine, UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. john.peters@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Greasby
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Woolf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005353:Fibronectins / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000097:blood; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014657:Vasculitis / Q000097:blood*; D014841:von Willebrand Factor / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005353:Fibronectins; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D014841:von Willebrand Factor; D002097:C-Reactive Protein