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Endocan as a marker of endothelial dysfunction in hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Hypertension Research volume 46, pages 2388–2399 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Hypertension is one of the foremost risk factors for cardiovascular disease and a significant cause of death worldwide. Importantly, endothelial dysfunction (ED) is one of the primary manifestations that may precede the development of hypertension. Endocan is a novel endothelial dysfunction and inflammation biomarker secreted from endothelial cells. Whether endocan may serve as a biomarker of hypertension is currently debated. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at linking endocan to ED in hypertensive patients. International databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science, were systematically searched for studies investigating Endocan serum or plasma levels in hypertensive patients and healthy controls. Random effect meta-analysis was performed to calculate the standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 20 studies assessing the association between endocan levels and hypertension were included in which 3130 individuals with a mean age of 50.48 ± 8.45 years were assessed. Hypertensive patients presented with higher circulating endocan levels (SMD 0.91, 95% CI 0.44–1.38, p-value < 0.01) compared with healthy controls. Interestingly, our data demonstrated that removing three studies assessing endocan levels in hypertensive patients with different comorbidities or special populations resulted in the same statistically higher endocan levels (SMD 1.16, 95% CI 0.66–1.65, p-value < 0.01). Overall, this systematic review and meta-analysis indicated that in hypertensive patients circulating endocan levels are significantly elevated. Thus, suggesting endocan as an easy-to-use biomarker to detect ED in hypertension. Despite this, more research is warranted to address this potential ability specifically.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Amir Hossein Behnoush, Amirmohammad Khalaji, Parsa Alehossein, Parnian Shobeiri & Maral Peisepar

  2. Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Amir Hossein Behnoush, Amirmohammad Khalaji & Parnian Shobeiri

  3. School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Pegah Bahiraie

  4. Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Parsa Alehossein

  5. Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, 10065, NY, USA

    Parnian Shobeiri

  6. Department of Translational Medical Sciences, Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy

    Alessandro Cannavo

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AHB: Writing - original draft/ Conceptualization/ Formal analysis/ Visualization, AK: Supervision/ Conceptualization/ Writing - original draft, review & editing, PB, PA, PS, MP: Writing - original draft/ Data curation, AC: Writing - review & editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Behnoush, A.H., Khalaji, A., Bahiraie, P. et al. Endocan as a marker of endothelial dysfunction in hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Hypertens Res 46, 2388–2399 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-023-01402-y

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