一个日益重要的冠心病标志物———新蝶呤

动脉粥样硬化是一种慢性炎症过程,炎症反应在动脉粥样斑块的形成、发展、稳定性丧失和斑块破裂过程中都起着非常重要的作用,贯穿于动脉粥样硬化的各个环节。从早期的脂质条纹到进一步的动脉粥样病变及血栓性并发症都能见到炎症细胞的浸润,其中又以激活的巨噬细胞尤为重要。新蝶呤是巨噬细胞激活后的代谢产物,它不仅是巨噬细胞激活的炎症标志物,还参与多种调节氧化平衡的生化途径,增加氧化应激水平,促进动脉粥样硬化的进展,是斑块不稳定性及不良性心血管事件的独立预测因子。在临床上,降低血清新蝶呤水平可以降低冠心病患者发生危险事件的风险。因此,新蝶呤对冠心病的诊断和治疗都有重要意义。本文将对新蝶呤在冠心病中的角色做一综述。

An Increasingly Important Marker of Coronary Heart Disease-Neopterin

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory process.Inflammatory reaction plays a very important role in every step of atherosclerosis process in atheromatous plaque’s formation,development,stability loss and plaque rupture.From the early fatty streak to further artery atherosclerosis lesions and thrombotic complications,inflammatory cell infiltration can be found in every step of atherosclerosis.Furthermore,macrophages activation is particularly important.Neopterin is a metabolite produced by activated macrophages.It is not only an inflammatory marker of activated macrophages,but participates in many biochemical pathways,adjusts the balance of oxidation,increases oxidative stress and promotes the progression of atherosclerosis.Neopterin is an independent predictor of instability of atheromatous plaque and adverse cardiovascular events.Reducing serum neopterin levels in patients with coronary heart disease can reduce the risk of adverse cardiovascular events.Therefore,neopterin is important to the diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease.In this review,we described neopterin’s potential role in cardiovascular disease.