Objectives: Several studies has reported a reduced circulatory level and impaired functionality of EPCs in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients and the role of endothelial nitric oxide Synthase (eNOS) in relation with reduced circulatory level of EPC and their impaired functionality has been revealed by in vitro and animal studies. However EPC’s eNOS gene expression profile in in vivo condition in PCAD patients is yet to be revealed as the prevalence of CAD at young age is markedly increased in developing countries. Our previous study has already reported a significantly reduced circulatory level of EPC in PCAD patients compared to control subjects and in continuation of that finding, present study aimed to investigate the eNOS gene expression of EPC in same study subjects as well as to establish the association between EPC’s eNOS gene expression and reduced circulatory level of EPC in PCAD patients.
Results: Reduced eNOS gene expression in EPC from PCAD patients compared to healthy controls were found (0.998±0.096/1.063±0.107) with a p-value of 0.002 and this difference was persistent even after adjusting for confounding factors (p=0.002). A positive correlation was found between eNOS gene expression and level of EPC in circulation (r = 0.234 and p = 0.0664); data from previous study.