Abstract
Purpose: Inflammation is implicated in cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the association of total serum immunoglobulin (Ig) A, G, and M with CVD across the whole spectrum of atherosclerosis in community-dwelling elderly is unknown. Methods: This study was embedded in the Rotterdam Study, an ongoing population-based cohort study. We performed Cox regression for the associations of Igs with incident atherosclerotic CVD (ACVD; composite of myocardial infarction, revascularization, and stroke), cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality, and multinomial logistic regression for the association between Igs and coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores. We adjusted for age, sex, lifestyle, and cardiovascular risk factors and presented results per standard deviation increase. Results: We included 8767 participants (median age 62.2 years, 57% women). Higher IgG was associated with an increased ACVD risk (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.08; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.01–1.15). Higher IgA and IgG were associated with an increased cardiovascular mortality risk, mainly within Ig reference ranges, and with an increased all-cause mortality risk, although less marked. Higher IgA was associated with severe atherosclerosis, i.e., CAC score > 400 (odds ratio: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.03–1.62), while for higher IgG a trend was seen with severe atherosclerosis. Conclusion: In middle-aged and older individuals from the general population, higher serum IgA and IgG, but not IgM, are associated with CVD, cardiovascular mortality, and severe atherosclerosis, particularly within Ig reference ranges and independent of serum C-reactive protein. Future studies are needed to elucidate potential causality of the reported associations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 769-779 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Journal of Clinical Immunology |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The Rotterdam Study is supported by the Erasmus MC University Medical Center and Erasmus University Rotterdam; The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw); the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE); The Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI); the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports; the European Commission (DG XII); and the Municipality of Rotterdam.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited [IIR-NLD-002671 to V.A.S.H.D.]. The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article, or the decision to submit it for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
