Introduction. Cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1) is a member of interleukin-6 family which induces cardiac hypertrophy. Recently it was shown that CT-1 is a key regulator of glucose metabolism. The role of CT-1 is not well established in patients with arterial hypertension (AH) with concominant glucose metabolism disorders.
The aim of the study — to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of CT-1 in AH with concominant glucose metabolism abnormalities.
Materials and methods. 180 hypertensive males were divided into 4 groups according to the glycemic status. 38 patients had isolated AH, 59 patients had AH with insulin resistance (IR), 59 patients were hypertensive with impaired fasting glucose. 24 patients had AH with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). The plasma level of CT-1 was determined by ELISA. Cardiac expression of CT-1 was investigated in spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR) with experimental DM and in normotensive Wistar rats by immunohystochemistry.
Results and discussion. The plasma level of CT-1 was significantly higher in patients with AH than in normotensive individuals. The hypertensive patients with signs of three target-organ damage had higher concentrations of CT-1 than patients with one organ damage. The presence of glucose metabolism disorders was associated with increased level of plasma CT-1. The highest CT-1 values were found in patients with AH and newly diagnosed DM. The cardiac expression of CT-1 was 3.15-fold higher in SHR rats with experimental DM compared with normotensive rats and 2.6-fold higher in comparison with SHR rats without diabetes.
Сonclusions. The study showed that CT-1 is increased in hypertensive patients with IFG and DM. These findings suggest that determination of CT-1 can be useful in patients with AH and glucose metabolism abnormalities.