Correlation between alpha naphthyl acetate esterase activity and different degrees of stenosis of human carotid artery

Abstract

Inspite the constantly growing body of biomedical knowledge and techniques, scientists are still far from a complete understanding of molecular system dysfunctions and their relevance in atherogenesis. Accordingly, cellular non specific esterases represent a special field of research, due to their role in a wide range of diseases, including atherosclerosis. This paper deals with linear correlation between relative a-naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) score values and different degrees of carotid stenosis in patients with various morphological atherosclerotic lesions of this blood vessel. In our study analysis of ANAE cytochemical activity was performed in imprints of carotid plaques obtained from patients with different morphological groups of atherosclerotic lesions (n=100), as well as in control group of patients with kinking and/or coiling of carotid arteries (n=25). ANAE status was determined by cytochemical scoring system (Hayhoe and Quaglino's method modified by Cvetković, Radak and Đorđević Denić). Our results show that there is difference in relative score value of ANAE activity in carotid artery/plaque tissue between investigated groups of patients. One can, also, observed linear correlation between relative ANAE score values and different degrees of carotid stenosis in patients with various morphological atherosclerotic lesions of this blood vessel. This findings may indicate importance of ANAE in atherogenesis.