Relationships Between HMGB1and Vascular Endothelial Function And Atherosclerosis In Essential Hypertension

ObjectiveTo elucidate whether serum high mobility group box1(HMGB1) level is associated with vascular endothelial function and carotid atherosclerosis parameters in essential hypertension.MethodsA total of48essential hypertensives and30matched healthy control subjects were consecutively recruited as the essential hypertention group and normal control group.Serum HMGB1, plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), serum nitric oxide (NO) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), nitrate reductase method respectively.In a synchronous fashion, high-frequency ultrasonography was performed to measure brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD), carotid arterial intima-media thickness (IMTmean、IMTmax), plaque number (PN) and plaque score (PS) as indices of vascular endothelial function and carotid atherosclerosis.Then analysing indicators of the two groups and evaluating the relationships between HMGB1and the following parameters.Results1.Serum HMGB1level and plasma ADMA level in essential hypertension group were higher than that in control group(P<0.01). Meanwhile,essential hypertensives had lower FMD and serum NO than control group(P<0.01).2.Compared with control group,essential hypertension group showed the greater carotid arterial intima-media thickness (IMTmean, IMTmax), plaque number (PN) and plaque score (PS)(P<0.01)3.Spearman’s rank correlation analysis showed that serum HMGB1were significantly and positively correlated with SBP, DBP, MAP, PP, ADMA, IMTmean, IMTmax, PS (P<0.01) and strong negatively correlated with NO, FMD (P<0.01) 4.Multiple linear stepwise regression analysis indicated that HMGB1was one of the independent predictive variables for FMD, IMTmean and PS, adjusted for potential confounding factors.We found the multiple linear regression equations as follows. FMD=25.663-0.128MAP-0.010HMGB1, R2=0.705; IMTmean=0.201-0.013FMD+0.0004HMGB1+0.003age+0.002SBP, R2=0.718; PS=0.003HMGB1+0.515Smoking history-0.934, R2=0.282。Conclusions1.Inflammation may be involved in essential hypertention.2.HMGB1is associated with the impaired vascular endothelial function in essential hypertension.3.HMGB1as a serum inflammatory factor might participate in the process of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis in essential hypertension.