The cellular adhesion pathway has been suggested as playing an important role in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, prior studies that have investigated the role of adhesion pathway proteins in risk of AF have been limited in the number of proteins that were studied and in the ethnic and racial diversity of the study population. Therefore we aimed to study the associations of fifteen adhesion pathway proteins with incident AF in a large, diverse population. Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants from four races/ethnicities (n = 2504) with protein levels measured were followed for incident AF (n = 253). HGF protein was measured on Exam 1 samples (N = 6669; AF n = 851). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the association of AF with 15 adhesion pathway proteins. Bonferroni correction was applied to account for multiple comparisons. After adjusting for potential confounding variables (age, sex, race/ethnicity, height, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, antihypertension therapy, diabetes status, current smoker, current alcohol use, and total and HDL cholesterol), and accounting for multiple testing (P < 0.05/15 = 0.0033), circulating levels of the following proteins were positively associated with a higher risk of AF: MMP-2 (HR per standard deviation increment, 1.27; 95% CI 1.11‒1.45), TIMP-2 (HR 1.28; 95% CI 1.12‒1.46), VCAM-1 (HR 1.32; 95% CI 1.16‒1.50), and SLPI (HR 1.22; 95% CI 1.07‒1.38). The association between proteins and AF did not differ by race/ethnicity. Circulating levels of MMP-2, TIMP-2, VCAM-1, and SLPI were positively associated with an increased risk of incident AF in a diverse population. Our findings suggest that adhesion pathway proteins may be important risk predictors of AF.

中文翻译：

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动脉粥样硬化多种族研究中的粘附通路蛋白和心房颤动风险

细胞粘附途径已被认为在心房颤动 (AF) 的发病机制中起重要作用。然而，先前研究粘附途径蛋白在 AF 风险中的作用的研究受限于所研究的蛋白质数量以及研究人群的种族和种族多样性。因此，我们旨在研究 15 种粘附途径蛋白与大量不同人群中发生 AF 的关联。对来自四个种族/族裔 (n = 2504) 的动脉粥样硬化参与者的多种族研究进行了对事件性 AF (n = 253) 的蛋白质水平测量。在检查 1 样品上测量 HGF 蛋白（N = 6669；AF n = 851）。Cox 比例风险回归用于评估 AF 与 15 种粘附途径蛋白的关联。应用 Bonferroni 校正来解释多重比较。在调整了潜在的混杂变量（年龄、性别、种族/民族、身高、体重指数、收缩压、抗高血压治疗、糖尿病状况、当前吸烟者、当前饮酒情况以及总胆固醇和高密度脂蛋白胆固醇）并考虑了多项测试后(P < 0.05/15 = 0.0033)，以下蛋白质的循环水平与更高的 AF 风险呈正相关：MMP-2 (HR 每标准差增量，1.27；95% CI 1.11-1.45)，TIMP-2 ( HR 1.28；95% CI 1.12-1.46）、VCAM-1（HR 1.32；95% CI 1.16-1.50）和 SLPI（HR 1.22；95% CI 1.07-1.38）。蛋白质和 AF 之间的关联不因种族/民族而异。MMP-2、TIMP-2、VCAM-1 的循环水平，和 SLPI 与不同人群中发生 AF 的风险增加呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，粘附途径蛋白可能是 AF 的重要风险预测因子。