Biomedical Letters

Detection of Endothelin (ET-1 and ET-3) as a novel biomarker of cardiovascular stress in patients of liver cirrhosis with ascites

Kalsoom Zaigham 1*, Iqra Fayyaz 1, Khawar Ali Shahzad 1,2, Muhammad Idrees Khan 3, Muhammad Shahzad Iqbal 3, Muhammad Ameen 1, Ayisha Ayub 3, Muhammad Zaigham Javed 1

1 Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Lahore 54000, Pakistan

2 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China

3 Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan

Abstract

Endothelin (ET) is an endothelial cell-derived peptide with greater vasoconstrictive potency involved in the control of systemic blood pressure (BP) and vascular tone. Dysfunctioning of ETs (endothelin-1 and endothelin-3) is considered a key risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The present study was aimed to find the correlation of endothelin and oxidative stress with cardiovascular stress. 50 Blood and ascitic fluid samples were collected from the patients of liver cirrhosis with ascites and 25 blood samples from normal individuals from General Hospital Lahore Pakistan. Endothelin-1 and endothelin-3 were quantified in serum and ascetic fluid by Real time PCR. Nitric oxide (NO), creatine kinase (CK), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), cholesterol, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were estimated as cardio vascular stress parameters and glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MAD) were estimated as biomarker of oxidative stress. ET-3 was quantified while ET-1 was not quantified due to very low concentration both in serum and ascitic fluid. Overall positive and highly significant (P<0.05) correlation of oxidative stress and cardiovascular stress with ET-3 was found. It was inferred that increase production of endothelin (ET-3) under oxidative stress generates cardiovascular stress in patients of liver cirrhosis with ascites.

Keywords: Endothelin, superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MAD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH), antioxidative enzymes, cardiovascular disease.

Received March 01, 2015 Revised April 05, 2015 Accepted April 12, 2015

*Correspondence: Kalsoom Zaigham Email: kalsimbb@yahoo.com Phone: +923117502868