Introduction: We hypothesized that patients with stable angina have increased plasma levels of mRNA from genes responsible for atherosclerotic plaque development and destabilisation, i.e. from death-associated protein kinase (DAPK1) and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (CCL2).
Materials and methods: Nucleic acids were isolated from plasma of patients with stabile angina and healthy subjects as controls. mRNAs were transcribed to cDNAs, quantified by real-time PCR and standardized to the amount of a reference gene. Reagents for PCR quantification are declared to be mRNA specific, but in our test conditions DNA was found to interfere in both assays. RESULTSs: Patients had 5.1-times higher plasma level of DAPK1 nucleic acids (mRNA and DNA) than controls (P < 0.001) and the highest levels were associated with the presence of diabetes. However, plasma levels of CCL2 tended to be lower than in controls, and in statin-treated patients the decrement reached significance (-66.3%; P = 0.041).
Conclusion: The estimated levels are explicable in terms of current knowledge. Further studies with specific assays for mRNA PCR quantification are reasonable to access whether this approach offers non-invasive in vive assessment and monitoring of gene expression profile in atherosclerotic vascular beds.