title: Patients with unrecognized peripheral arterial disease (PAD) assessed by ankle-brachial index (ABI) present a defined profile of proinflammatory markers compared to healthy subjects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many studies have postulated that atherosclerosis should be considered as an inflammatory disease. In addition, some studies have focused on the relationship between inflammation and peripheral arterial disease (PAD).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Define the plasma levels of soluble markers, including the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6), the anti-inflammatory cytokine transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), the endothelial-specific adhesion factor (E-selectin) and two proteinases involved in extracellular matrix degradation (matrix metalloproteinases-2 and -9, MMP-2, and MMP-9) in previously unrecognized patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) and non-PAD controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significantly higher levels of IL-6, E-selectin and MMP-2/MMP-9 and significantly reduced levels of TGF-β1 were found in PAD patients (ankle-brachial index, ABI⩽0.9) compared to non-PAD control subjects (1.4>ABI>0.9).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results demonstrated the subjects with unrecognized PAD (ABI⩽0.9) show a characteristic phlogistic pattern differently from healthy subjects and it strongly supports the pivotal role played by inflammatory and immunological mechanisms in the initiation and progression of the atherosclerotic process in peripheral arteries. These biomarkers could be helpful to screen the susceptibility for the diseases in peripheral arteries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Systemic Disease, Section of Internal Medicine and Vascular Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Catania, Italy. ssignore@unict.it
authors.forename: Salvatore Santo
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Signorelli
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Anzaldi
authors.forename: Valerio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fiore
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simili
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Puccia
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Libra
authors.forename: Graziella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Malaponte
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Neri
mesh_terms: D055109:Ankle Brachial Index; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003710:Demography; D019040:E-Selectin / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D018836:Inflammation Mediators / Q000097:blood*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D020778:Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 / Q000097:blood; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 / Q000097:blood; D008875:Middle Aged; D058729:Peripheral Arterial Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D019040:E-Selectin; C508600:IL6 protein, human; D018836:Inflammation Mediators; D015850:Interleukin-6; C546936:SELE protein, human; C522361:MMP2 protein, human; D020778:Matrix Metalloproteinase 2; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9