European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on January 25, 2005
European Heart Journal 2005 26(4):418-419; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehi106
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Relations of plasma total TIMP-1 levels to cardiovascular risk factors and echocardiographic measures: the Framingham Heart Study: reply
NHLBI Framingham Heart Study
Framingham, MA, USA
Department of Public Health & Caring
Sciences, Uppsala University
Uppsala, Sweden
Tel: +46 508 935 3450
Fax: +46 508 626 1262
E-mail address: vasan{at}bu.edu
NHLBI Framingham Heart Study
Framingham, MA, USA
Department of Preventive Medicine
Cardiology Section, Boston University
School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
We thank Dr Szmigielski and colleagues for their thoughtful comments. We agree with them that circulating TIMP-1 levels may reflect vascular as well as left ventricular remodelling. Their findings are interesting and confirm previous observations indicating that increased circulating TIMP-1 levels are related to stable coronary1 and carotid2 atherosclerosis.
One of the striking observations in our study was the direct relationship of plasma TIMP-1 levels to all major cardiovascular disease risk factors3 (independently of LV measures). Our data are consistent with the notion that increased circulating TIMP-1 levels may be a critical link in the causal pathway from cardiovascular disease risk factors to vascular and cardiac remodelling. Alternatively, circulating TIMP-1 may be indicative of the response to an increase in MMP activity in the cardiovascular tissues triggered by known vascular risk factors. Additional clinical data are warranted to investigate these possibilities.
References
- Noji Y, Kajinami K, Kawashiri MA, Todo Y, Horita T, Nohara A, Higashikata T, Inazu A, Koizumi J, Takegoshi T, Mabuchi H. Circulating matrix metalloproteinases and their inhibitors in premature coronary atherosclerosis. Clin Chem Lab Med 2001;39:380384.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
- Beaudeux JL, Giral P, Bruckert E, Bernard M, Foglietti MJ, Chapman MJ. Serum matrix metalloproteinase-3 and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 as potential markers of carotid atherosclerosis in infraclinical hyperlipidemia. Atherosclerosis 2003;169:139146.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
- Sundstrom J, Evans JC, Benjamin EJ, Levy D, Larson MG, Sawyer DB et al. Relations of plasma total TIMP-1 levels to cardiovascular risk factors and echocardiographic measures: the Framingham heart study. Eur Heart J 2004;25:15091516.
[Abstract/Free Full Text]
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