Relationship between Carotid Intima-Media Thickness and Fibroblast Growth Factor Binding Protein-3 in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome

Introduction: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) causes arteriosclerosis (AS). Increased carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) manifests as early vascular changes in AS. Fibroblast growth factor binding proteins (FGBP1, 2 and 3) are chaperones that are locally activated by binding paracrine FGFs from heparan sulfate stores in the extracellular matrix. Here we investigated whether FGFBP-3 affects AS by changing the glucose and fat metabolism of MetS. We propose that FGFBP-3 could be a new therapeutic agent to prevent AS by reversing MetS pathology. Methods: Eighty-two 82 patients with MetS at University of Health Sicences Turkey, Istanbul Training and Research Hospital were prospectively included in the study. Serum FGFBP-3 levels of the patients were measured. For subclinical AS, CIMT was recorded with two right and left measurements using B-mode ultrasound. Results: There was no significant correlation between FGFBP-3 and CIMT levels. A significant negative correlation was found between FGFBP-3 and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p=0.048). The FGFBP-3 level was significantly lower in the diabetes mellitus (DM) group than in the non-diabetic group (p=0.049). Conclusion: In our study, there was no relationship between serum FGFBP-3 levels and CIMT. However, there was a relationship between FGFBP-3 and high SBP and diabetes. We believe that FGFBP-3 can stabilize the bioactivity of endogenous FGF21 and therefore may have significant therapeutic benefits in metabolic diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 DM.