The Controversial Role of Irisin in Clinical Management of Coronary Heart Disease

Abstract

Irisin, a PGC1α-dependent myokine, was once believed to have beneficial effects induced by exercise. Since its first discovery of adipose browning in 2012, multiple studies have been trying to explore the metabolic functions of irisin, such as glucose and lipid metabolism. However, recently many studies with irisin concentration measuring were doubt for methodological problems, which may account for the continuous inconsistencies. New tools like recombinant irisin and gene-knockout mice are required to reconfirm the questioned functions of irisin. In this paper, we make a critical introduction to the latest researches concerning the relationship between irisin and coronary heart disease, which includes atherosclerosis, stable angina pectoris and acute coronary syndromes. These studies provided various controversial evidence of short and long-term monitoring and therapeutic effect from molecular cellular mechanisms, in vivo experiments and epidemiological investigation. But with ambiguities, irisin still has a long way to go to identify its functions in the clinical management.

The Role of Interventional Irisin on Heart Molecular Physiology

“…Serum levels of troponin were unaffected by the increase of serum irisin and were found to be comparable to control levels. According to the recent literature, the correlation between irisin levels and troponin is negative, as several studies confirm its decrease upon elevation in serum irisin levels [ 24 , 25 ]. The presented results question the reliability of troponin as a biomarker of cardiac health [ 26 ] and raise attention to a circumstantial correlation to the concentrations of irisin in subjects.…”

Circulating Irisin Levels in Patients with Chronic Plaque Psoriasis

“…AG-45A-0046YEK-KI01, AdipoGen, Liestal, Switzerland), with a detection limit of 0.001 mcg/mL, intra-assay coefficient of variability (CV) of 6.9% and inter-assay CV of 9.07%. Notwithstanding challenges in the measurement of serum irisin levels [ 15 , 23 ], we adopted a comparable approach with respect to the recent literature [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

“…In addition, the link between irisin and BMI remains controversial [ 12 , 21 ]. The role of irisin in suppressing the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases has been suggested, although ambiguities still exist, and the underlying mechanisms have not been fully clarified [ 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”

Irisin as a Novel Biomarker of Subclinical Atherosclerosis, Cardiovascular Risk and Severe Disease in Axial Spondyloarthritis

“…In this context, since its discovery in 2012, much attention has been paid to the adipomyokine irisin (14). This molecule has been reported to play a critical beneficial role in several processes such as inflammation, angiogenesis, oxidative stress, endothelial cell dysfunction, and lipid and bone metabolism (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19). In particular, it has been described that irisin plays key roles against vascular inflammation by inhibiting the recruitment of inflammatory cells to the atherosclerotic lesions and also inducing the switch from the proinflammatory (M1) phenotype of macrophages to the antiinflammatory (M2) phenotype (19)(20)(21)(22)(23).…”