Effects of PEAR1 gene polymorphism on big endothelin-1 levels in Chinese patients with acute myocardial infarction after percutaneous coronary intervention.

Acute myocardial infarction(AMI)has been associated with poor prognosis,even after revascularization with percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI),likely due to coronary endothelial cell dysfunction and injury.[1,2]Endothelin-1(ET-1),a peptide that serves as a vasoconstrictor of smooth muscle cell proliferation,can reflect endothelial cell functional states.Due to low circulation levels and short plasma half-life time,measuring plasma ET-1 levels is difficult.In contrast,big ET-1,a biological precursor of endothelin with longer plasma half-life time,is a more sensitive indicator of endothelial activation.Indeed,some studies have used big ET-1 levels as an indicator of endothelial cell function,[3]and higher big ET-1 levels were associated with stent thrombosis among PCI patients.[4]Thus,big ET-1 is more widely evaluated than ET-1 as an indicator of endothelial cell fuinction.