The Correlation Between Kallistatin And Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Objective: Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a common disease in the vascular department,which is characterized as permanent dilation of the abdominal aortic wall.Abdominal aortic aneurysm rupturing is the main cause of death in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm.Kallistatin,encoded by SERPINA4,is a special serine proteinase inhibitor.Kallistatin was suggested to play a protective role in many cardiovascular diseases.However,its role in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm(AAA)remains unclear.The aim of this study was to examine the potential association of kallistatin with AAA pathogenesis.Methods: We examined kallistatin(SERPINA4)expression in human AAA by PCR,immunohistochemistry,western blotting,immunohistochemistry,immunofluorescence and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay,and analyzed correlations between kallistain and clinical data.We then analyzed the correlations between kallistatin(SERPINA4)and cell markers,Wnt signal pathway related genes and clinical data of AAA patients.Results: In AAA tissue samples,kallistatin was significantly increased(p<0.001),and SERPINA4 mRNA was significantly decreased(p=0.018),compared with samples from the control group(p<0.001,p<0.001,respectively).Clinically,decreased SERPINA4 expression in AAA tissue samples represented an increased rate of iliac artery aneurysm(OR=0.017;p=0.040).And decreased plasma kallistatin level represented a high risk for rupture(OR=0.837;p=0.034).Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that aberrant changes in kallistatin expression occur in AAA.Kallistatin plays an important anti-inflammatory role and showed important clinical correlations in AAA.Decreased kallistatin(SERPINA4)level is a risk factor of AAA rupture.Kallistatin might be a new target for the drug therapy of AAA.