High hexacosanoic acid levels are associated with coronary artery disease
Introduction
Saturated very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) are minor fatty acid components in human tissues and bloodstream. However, levels of C26:0, one of the saturated VLCFAs, in erythrocytes are associated with risks of age-related diseases [1]. A recent report suggested that peroxisome-related alterations and increased VLCFAs may contribute to the progression of Alzheimer's disease [2], [3]. We also reported that absolute C26:0 levels in whole blood are significantly associated with metabolic syndrome (MS) [4]. Furthermore, increased levels of another saturated VLCFA, C24:0, in erythrocytes was found to correlate with atherogenic lipoprotein profiles and inflammatory states measured by high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) [5]. However, few studies have investigated correlations between C26:0 levels and coronary artery disease (CAD).
To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that C26:0 levels are significantly higher in CAD patients than in healthy control subjects. C26:0 levels significantly correlated with several coronary risk factors, thus representing an independent risk factor for CAD after adjustment for other coronary risk markers.
Section snippets
Study subjects
Our previous study showed mean and standard deviation (SD) of C26:0 levels in healthy subjects was 2.25 ± 0.29 μg/ml whereas C26:0 levels were 2.42 ± 0.31 μg/ml in subjects with MS [4]. Therefore, we estimated a difference in mean C26:0 levels of 0.3 μg/ml between CAD patients and healthy controls, and a SD in C26:0 of 0.3 μg/ml. At least 34 subjects were needed in each group to have 80% power at the 5% significance levels to detect the anticipated difference between the two groups. Finally, we
Characteristics of study subjects
The characteristics of the subjects in the present study are shown in Table 1. The two groups were not significantly different in terms of age, gender, BMI, and smoking status. The CAD group more often had a history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia (P < 0.001, respectively). In the CAD group, plasma TC and TG levels were significantly increased and HDL-C levels were significantly decreased compared with the controls (P < 0.001, respectively). However, plasma LDL-C levels
Discussion
This is the first study to demonstrate that levels of the saturated VLCFA, C26:0, in whole blood were significantly higher in CAD patients than in healthy control subjects. We observed that C26:0 levels positively correlated with several features of MS, such as BMI, TG and hypertension and that C26:0 was an independent predictor of CAD after adjustment for age, gender, and the components of MS.
Fatty acid beta-oxidation occurs in both peroxisomes and mitochondria. VLCFAs (>C20) are primarily
Conclusion
We demonstrated the correlation between saturated VLCFA C26:0 and CAD. In particular, we found that circulating C26:0 was an independent predictor of CAD after adjustment for age, gender, and MS components, thereby being a potential risk factor for the development of CAD.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Dr. Hirotaka Takizawa and Dr. Kiyotaka Fujii (Nagasu Kashiwado clinic) for their assistance in data collection of study subjects and Enago (www.enago.jp) for the English language review.
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2017, Prostaglandins and Other Lipid MediatorsCitation Excerpt :Our study revealed hexacosanoic acid (C26:0) as an important CAD predictor and found a positive correlation of C26:0 with the vascular severity and MDA, as it was three times more important in CAD group than controls. Despite that C26:0 is a minor FA component in human tissues, it was used as a diagnostic marker for peroxisomal disorders [27,28] and it was significantly associated with metabolic syndrome [29] and CAD [30]. These results suggest that increased levels of erythrocyte C26:0, as showed in our study, are closely related to atherosclerosis and could be used as CAD biomarkers.