Impact of atrial fibrillation on platelet gene expression

Abstract

Aims: Platelets retain cytoplasmic messenger RNA and are capable of protein biosynthesis. Several diseases are known to impact the platelet transcriptome but the effect of non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) on platelet RNA transcript is essentially unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of NVAF on platelet RNA transcript by measuring platelet genes expression in consecutive NVAF patients before and 3-4 months after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) and compared to normal sinus rhythm controls (NSR). Methods and Results: RNA from isolated platelets were reverse transcribed, assayed against 15 genes using real-time qPCR, and expressed as mean cycle threshold (ΔCt) using beta-2-microglobulin as endogenous control. Expression of all evaluated genes, except cathepsin A gene, was significantly lower (higher ΔCt) in 103 NVAF patients compared to 55 NSR controls. Insulin-like growth factor binding protein acid labile subunit gene (IGFALS) had expression more than 16 fold-lower (17.0±2.8 vs 12.5±3.8, P