STUDIES OF AUTOIMMUNITY AND CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Connective tissue diseases (CTD) are known risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). Patients with CTD such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus have a high prevalence of CAD. It has been proposed that the association between CTD and CAD is related to inflammation. Furthermore, circulating autoantibodies have been identified in CAD, and CAD may have autoimmune features. Circulating autoantibodies in asymptomatic individuals predict future clinical CTD. Although the association between CTD and CAD is established, an association between pre-clinical autoantibodies and early CAD has not been explored. This study will test the hypothesis that individuals with pre-clinical CTD related autoimmunity are more likely to develop sub-clinical CAD. To test this hypothesis, we will: 1) Determine the association between autoimmunity measured in sera collected in 1992 and the subsequent development of sub-clinical CAD measured in 2000 and 2005. 2) Assess whether autoimmunity in 1992 predicts future increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and whether CRP mediates the relationship between autoimmunity and CAD. We will utilize the extensive data on cardiac risk, sub-clinical CAD, and stored serum collected serially over the past 20 years by the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, a prospective cohort of 5108 subjects followed since 1985 for development of cardiac risk factors.