Abstract:

Objective   To investigate the changes of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4 ) in the aorta of patients with coronary atherosclerosis and its association with pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and severity of coronary heart disease. Methods   Aortic tissues from 42 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft(CABG) surgery were taken as the study group, while aortic tissues from 10 healthy young men through the kidney donation program were taken as controls. Expression of the TLR4 protein was determined by immunohistochemistry. The relationship of expression of TLR4 protein and severity of coronary heart disease demonstrated by coronary angiography was analyzed. Result   The TLR4 protein was detectable in aortas from CABG patients. However, it was absent from the controlled aortic tissues(P<0.01). Expression of the TLR4 protein was positively correlated with the severity of coronary heart disease(P<0.01). Conclusion   TLR4 is a new biomarker in aortic tissues. Over-expression of TLR4 in atherosclerosis aortic tissues indicates that inflammatory reaction is obvious in atherosclerosis mottling. Taking aortic tissues from CABG as samples may be a new method in the study of atherosclerosis.

Key words: Toll-like receptor 4；Coronary artery bypass；Atherosclerosis