serum levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine and apelin as potential markers of vascular endothelial dysfunction in early rheumatoid arthritis血清水平的不对称dimethylarginine和组织apelin潜在标记血管内皮功能障碍的早期类风湿性关节炎.pdf

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Mediators of Inflammation Volume 2012, Article ID 347268, 7 pages doi:10.1155/2012/347268 Clinical Study Serum Levels of Asymmetric Dimethylarginine and Apelin as Potential Markers of Vascular Endothelial Dysfunction in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Manuela Di Franco,1 Francesca Romana Spinelli,1 Alessio Metere,2 Maria Chiara Gerardi,1 Virginia Conti,1 Francesca Boccalini,3 Cristina Iannuccelli,1 Francesco Ciciarello,3 Luciano Agati,3 and Guido Valesini1 1 Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialities, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale Del Policlinico 155, 00161 Rome, Italy 2 Section of Biomarkers in Degenerative Diseases, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, ` Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy 3 Department of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy Correspondence should be addressed to Manuela Di Franco, manuela.difranco@uniroma1.it Received 5 June 2012; Accepted 27 June 2012 ´ Academic Editor: Miguel A. Gonzalez-Gay Copyright © 2012 Manuela Di Franco et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives. Impaired endothelial function represents the early stage of atherosclerosis, which is typically associated with systemic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). As modulators of endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression, asymmetric- dimeth