Role of autophagy in the progress of coronary total occlusion.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we measured the level of autophagy enzyme in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and investigated whether the role of autophagy existed in the progress of coronary collateral and coronary total occlusion (TO).

METHODS: Overall, 115 participants were included in this study. They were divided into the three groups: group 1: patients had chronic TO (n=49); group 2: patients had acute TO such as myocardial infarction (n=36); and group 3: participants were normal controls (n=30). The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit for autophagy-related protein 5 (ATG5) in the plasma was studied for these three groups.

RESULTS: Autophagy levels were significantly different between the groups (13.7±5.3, 11.7±3.4, and 7.5±3 ng/mL, respectively; p<0.001). In the subgroup analysis, we found significant positive correlations between the level of autophagy and Rentrop score in the Group 1 (r=0.463, p<0.001).

CONCLUSION: In the present study, autophagy levels were higher in the patients with CAD than in healthy controls. In addition, serum autophagy levels showed a significant positive correlation with the Rentrop score. An increased autophagy level may be considered an important activator and marker of the atherosclerotic inflammatory process in CAD (Tab. 1, Fig. 2, Ref. 20).