The Role of Nitric Oxide Synthase in Circulating Progenitor Cell Function

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Status

Completed

Conditions

Cardiovascular Disease

Study type

Observational

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT00627068

HL086917

Details and patient eligibility

About

Our main hypothesis is that EPC function is impaired in some populations with high cardiovascular risk as a result of reduced eNOS-dependent NO production.

Full description

To determine if a correlation exists between EPC function and eNOS-dependent NO production in EPCs from populations with high versus low cardiovascular risk:

High and low cardiovascular risk subjects will be identified based on age or history of cardiovascular disease. Endothelial function will be measured by ultrasound.
EPCs will be isolated from peripheral blood of these subjects. EPC function will be assessed by measuring adhesion to endothelium, migration, proliferation, and differentiation, and compared to their expression and activity of eNOS.

Enrollment

60 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Willing and able to give written informed consent and comply with study requirements
Adult of 18 years or older
Subjects willing to provide blood and tissue samples

Exclusion criteria

Failure to give informed consent.
Those unable to consent for themselves.
Those who cannot read English.
Patients on Viagra, Levitra, or Cialis
Patients with malignant disease
Patients with hematological abnormalities
Patients with fevers of unknown origin
Severe comorbidity or alcohol/drug dependence
Women who are post-menopausal and on hormone replacement therapy, or premenopausal and on birth control pills (premenopausal women will be screened verbally and then by assay of LH and FSH levels in blood samples to identify women in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle, to reduce variability)