Interplay of sclerostin and cytokines of interleukin-6 family in the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease

Sclerostin, a Wnt/β-catenin signaling antagonist, plays a predominant role in bone metabolism and is also expressed in cardiovascular tissues. The level of this glycoprotein is associated with aortic stiffness and vascular calcification in coronary artery disease (CAD). Our study explored the relationship between the levels of sclerostin, cytokines of interleukin-6 family and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in the blood serum of CAD patients. The study included two groups of patients : 80 patients aged 46-74 with a stable coronary heart disease, and 80 patients aged 46-70 as a control group. The levels of oncostatin M (OSM), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) were estimated with ELISA. The result have shown a highly significant decrease of sclerostin in conjunction with the increase of OSM, CT-1, LIF levels and along with the decrease of PGE2 level in the serum of patient with CAD comparing with control group. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant relationship between sclerostin and OSM, CT-1, LIF, PGE2 concentrations. ROC curve analysis indicated that patients at risk for coronary heart disease could be identified with a specificity of 0.975 when their serum sclerostin level was greater than 88.325 pg/ml. Therefore, sclerostin could play a critical role in CAD and may be useful for monitoring disease progression. Keywords: cardiotrophin-1, coronary heart disease, human leukemia inhibitory factor, oncostatin M, prostaglandin E2, sclerostin