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Low level of the plasma sphingolipid, glucosylceramide, is associated with thrombotic diseases
Hiroshi Deguchi1, Silvia Navarro1,2, Amanda B Payne3,4
1Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Background:
One previous pilot study suggested the association of low plasma glucosylceramide (GlcCer) levels with venous thrombosis (VTE) risk.
Objective:
We aimed to confirm and evaluate the association of low plasma GlcCer levels with VTE and myocardial infarction (MI) occurrence, respectively.
Patients And Methods:
We evaluated the association of GlcCer in two independent case-control studies of Caucasian VTE populations (N = 210 and 636) and one case-control study of Caucasian MI patients (N = 345).
Result:
Plasma GlcCer levels in VTE patients were lower compared to controls in two independent VTE populations (5.0 vs 5.8 μg/mL, p = 0.003 for the Scripps registry, and 5.6 vs 6.0 μg/mL, p = 0.001 for the Valencia registry, respectively). A low plasma GlcCer level (below 10th percentile of controls) was associated with increased VTE occurrence [odds ratio (OR) = 3.7 (95%CI, 1.8-7.9) for Scripps registry and OR = 2.1 (95%CI, 1.3-3.3) for Valencia registry, respectively). For the MI study, the median GlcCer plasma level was lower in MI patients than in controls (4.3 vs 5.6 μg/mL, p<0.001), and a low level of GlcCer (below 10th percentile of control) was associated with higher MI occurrence [OR = 7.7, (95%CI, 4.3-13.8)].
Conclusion:
Lower concentration of GlcCer was associated with VTE occurrence in two independent studies and also with MI occurrence in one study.
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