Abstract. Cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36) is involved in the development of atherosclerosis by enhancing macrophage endocytosis of oxidized low-density lipoproteins and foam cell formation. Soluble CD36 (sCD36) was found to be elevated in type 2 diabetic patients and possibly acted as a marker of insulin resistance and atherosclerosis. In young subjects, sCD36 was associated with cardiovascular risk factors including obesity and hypertriglyceridemia. The present study was conducted to further investigate the association between plasma sCD36 and cardiovascular risk factors among middle-aged patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and healthy controls. sCD36 concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) for 41 patients with MetS and 36 healthy controls. Data for other variables were obtained from patient medical records. sCD36 concentrations were relatively low compared to the majority of other studies and were not significantly different between the MetS group and controls (P=0.17). sCD36 was also not correlated with age, body mass index, glucose, lipid profile, serum electrolytes and blood counts. sCD36 was not significantly different between subjects with obesity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, hypertension or cardiovascular disease, and those without these abnormalities (P>0.05). The inconsistency between results reported in the present study and other studies may be unique to the study population or be a result of the lack of a reliable standardized method for determining absolute sCD36 concentrations. However, further investigations are required to assess CD36 tissue expression in the study population and to assess the accuracy of various commercially available sCD36 ELISA kits. Thus, the availability of a standardized simple sCD36 ELISA that could be performed in any basic laboratory would be more favorable to the specialized flow cytometry methods that detect CD36 + microparticles if it was to be used as a biomarker.
IntroductionCardiovascular disease (CVD) is the principal cause of fatalities among older adults worldwide (1). Advanced age, male gender and family history of CVD are considered as non-modifiable cardiovascular risk factors (2). Alternatively, modifiable risk factors for CVD include obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, reduced high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, diabetes mellitus (DM), smoking and a sedentary lifestyle (3). To best identify the subjects at an increased risk of CVD, the term 'Metabolic Syndrome' (MetS) emerged to describe a cluster of the modifiable risk factors that they can predict the occurrence of CVD when they exist together (4). However, subjects are diagnosed with MetS when they fulfill certain criteria that were defined by several health organizations (5-8).Certain subjects may develop CVD without having numerous cardiovascular risk factors (9). Khot et al (10) have shown that at least one of the four traditional risk factors (smoking, DM, hyperlipidemia and hypertension) was found in ~80% of thei...