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  • Publication
    Elevated plasma CXCL12a is associated with a poorer prognosis in pulmonary arterial hypertension
    Recent work in preclinical models suggests that signalling via the pro-angiogenic and pro-inflammatory cytokine, CXCL12 (SDF-1), plays an important pathogenic role in pulmonary hypertension (PH). The objective of this study was to establish whether circulating concentrations of CXCL12a were elevated in patients with PAH and related to mortality. Plasma samples were collected from patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) and PAH associated with connective tissue diseases (CTD-PAH) attending two pulmonary hypertension referral centres (n = 95) and from age and gender matched healthy controls (n = 44). Patients were subsequently monitored throughout a period of five years. CXCL12a concentrations were elevated in PAH groups compared to controls (P<0.05) and receiver-operating-characteristic analysis showed that plasma CXCL12a concentrations discriminated patients from healthy controls (AUC 0.80, 95% confidence interval 0.73-0.88). Kaplan Meier analysis indicated that elevated plasma CXCL12a concentration was associated with reduced survival (P<0.01). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model showed that elevated CXCL12a independently predicted (P<0.05) earlier death in PAH with a hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of 2.25 (1.01-5.00). In the largest subset by WHO functional class (Class 3, 65% of patients) elevated CXCL12a independently predicted (P<0.05) earlier death, hazard ratio 2.27 (1.05-4.89). Our data show that elevated concentrations of circulating CXCL12a in PAH predicted poorer survival. Furthermore, elevated circulating CXCL12a was an independent risk factor for death that could potentially be included in a prognostic model and guide therapy.
      391Scopus© Citations 25
  • Publication
    Gremlin Plays a Key Role in the Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Hypertension
    (Ovid Technologies Wolters Kluwer -American Heart Association, 2012-01-13) ; ; ;
    Background—Pulmonary hypertension occurs in chronic hypoxic lung diseases, significantly worsening morbidity and mortality. The important role of altered bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling in pulmonary hypertension was first suspected after the identification of heterozygous BMP receptor mutations as the underlying defect in the rare heritable form of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Subsequently, it was demonstrated that BMP signaling was also reduced in common forms of pulmonary hypertension, including hypoxic pulmonary hypertension; however, the mechanism of this reduction has not previously been elucidated. Methods and Results—Expression of 2 BMP antagonists, gremlin 1 and gremlin 2, was higher in the lung than in other organs, and gremlin 1 was further increased in the walls of small intrapulmonary vessels of mice during the development of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. Hypoxia stimulated gremlin secretion from human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells in vitro, which inhibited endothelial BMP signaling and BMP-stimulated endothelial repair. Haplodeficiency of gremlin 1 augmented BMP signaling in the hypoxic mouse lung and reduced pulmonary vascular resistance by attenuating vascular remodeling. Furthermore, gremlin was increased in the walls of small intrapulmonary vessels in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension and the rare heritable form of pulmonary arterial hypertension in a distribution suggesting endothelial localization. Conclusions—These findings demonstrate a central role for increased gremlin in hypoxia-induced pulmonary vascular remodeling and the increased pulmonary vascular resistance in hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. High levels of basal gremlin expression in the lung may account for the unique vulnerability of the pulmonary circulation to heterozygous mutations of BMP type 2 receptor in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
    Scopus© Citations 83  460