| Profiles of Circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells in Obstructive Sleep Apnea |
| Chang-Ho Yun, Ki-Hwan Ji, Choong-Kun Ha, Jae-Kyu Roh |
1Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, Inha University, Incheon
2Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea |
| Corresponding Author:
Chang-Ho Yun ,Tel: +82-32-890-3418, 386, Fax: +82-32-890-3864, Email: ych333@chol.com/ych333@inha.ac.kr |
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Received: June 12, 2008 Accepted: June 22, 2008 Published online: June 30, 2008 |
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| ABSTRACT |
Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases through endothelial damage or
functional impairment. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are blood markers for endothelial functional reservoirs, and a reduction in
the number of EPCs is associated with a greater cardiovascular risk. We investigated the EPC in patients with OSA.
Methods: We prospectively enrolled consecutive subjects referred to our institution for the evaluation of habitual snoring or apnea.
The subjects were diagnosed as OSA based on the results of overnight polysomnography. The number of colony-forming units (CFUs)
on cell cultures for seven days was adopted as an EPC index.
Results: CFU tends to show higher value in severe OSA than mild-to-moderate OSA (54.4￠®¨u29.1 vs. 33.8￠®¨u26.8; t-test, p=0.16). Other
vascular risks have no effect on CFU level
Conclusions: Severe OSA may induce the release of EPC from bone-marrow to peripheral blood to compensate on-going vascular
injury. Further study is required to validate the relationship between OSA and EPC.
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| Keywords:
Sleep apnea syndromes | Atherosclerosis | Endothelium | Colony-forming units assay |
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