Lipidomic Profiling and Biological Aging in Patients with Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction.

BACKGROUND

Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) was frequently encountered in patients with angina in the absence of epicardial coronary stenosis. CMD was associated with adverse outcomes while the etiology was unclear.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between lipidomic abnormalities, biological aging and CMD.

METHODS

We consecutively enrolled 43 patients with angina exhibiting no epicardial coronary stenosis on angiography. CMD was defined by a coronary angiography-derived index of microvascular resistance (caIMR) >25. Targeted lipidomic profiling quantified 781 lipids. PhenoAge was calculated from clinical parameters. Using machine learning, lipidomic data and clinical characteristics were screened to identify candidate biomarkers.

RESULTS

There were 25 patients having CMD with the mean caIMR of 34.0 (Interquartile range [IQR], 31.0-36.5), in contrast to 23.0 (IQR, 19.0-24.5) in the control group. Patients with CMD had substantially older PhenoAge (61 vs 52, p = 0.002). Forty-eight lipid species were dysregulated in patients with CMD, which predominantly belonged to triacylglycerol (TAG). PhenoAge, triglyceride glucose index, hypertension, TAG47:2-FA14:0, TAG48:4-FA18:1 and phosphatidylcholine (18:1/20:3) were independent risk factors of CMD. Incorporating dysregulated lipids significantly improved CMD prediction compared to traditional clinical factors alone (area under the curve, 0.94 vs 0.86, p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

PhenoAge acceleration and dysregulated lipidome were associated with CMD. Larger-scale studies and external validation are needed in the future.