Abstract

Endothelial dysfunction is one of the earliest pathological features in atherosclerosis. The current study designed to analyse the telomere length of human coronary artery derived endothelial cells to identify the relationship between telomere shortening and coronary artery disease (CAD)s. Coronary artery endothelial cells obtained from 30 patients with CAD and cell line were analysed by real time PCR method. Relative telomere and single-copy 36B4 gene (T/S) ratio which corresponds to the telomere length in coronary artery was significantly smaller in coronary artery disease patients than compared with control cell line. Flow cytometry analysis resulted endothelial cell count ranged from 0.55 x 106 to 0.96 x 106. Findings of this study suggest that telomere shortening in coronary artery endothelial cells play important role in the coronary artery disease.

Key words: Coronary artery disease, telomere length, endothelial cells