Objective To investigate the changes of high mobility group box1 (HMGB1) in the aorta of patients with coronary artery disease and its association with pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Methods Aortic tissues from 36 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery were taken as the study group, while aortic tissues from 12 healthy subjects in the kidney donation program were taken as controls. Expression of HMGB1 was determined by immunohistochemistry. The preoperative plasma TC, TG, LDL-C, HDL-C, Lp (a), ApoA I, ApoB, non-HDL-C, VLDL-C, hs-CRP, TBIL, DBIL and IBIL of patients in the research group were examined. The coronary angiography and carotid artery ultrasound were performed in order to analyze the severity of atherosclerotic lesions. Results The HMGB1 protein was detectable in aortas from CABG patients. However, it was absent from the controlled tissues. The plasma TC, TG, LDL-C, Lp (a), ApoB, non-HDL-C, VLDL-C, and hs-CRP of patients in the research group were significantly elevated than the reference values (P<0.01), whereas plasma HDL-C, ApoA I, TBIL, DBIL and IBIL were significantly lower than the reference values (P<0.01). The incidence of severe coronary artery stenosis was 86.1% and intima-media thickness was more than 1.2mm. Conclusion Over-expression of HMGB1 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.
