With Letter
Angiology
Rapamycin and Thrombosis
Qian Ma, MD1
As the first author of a recently published article1 in Angiology,
I accidentally omitted to cite a key article by Prof Vaughan’s
group.2 I offer my apologies to these authors.
The 2 articles1,2 differ substantially but arrive at similar
conclusions. Using different methods, we explored the pro-
thrombotic mechanism of drug-eluting stents.1 We used throm-
bin to set up a cell model instead of directly treating the cells
with rapamycin. Second, after stimulation for 4 hours, rapamy-
cin was added at final concentrations of 1, 10, 100, and 1000
ng/mL and then human umbilical vein endothelial cells
(HUVECs) were incubated for 24 and 48 hours in my study.
In the study by Vaughan’s group,2 rapamycin at the concentra-
tions of 0.22, 2.2, and 22 nmol/L was used for a week. Further-
more, I used Western blot to detect protein level instead of
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
In-stent thrombosis remains a severe complication owing to
the associated high mortality.1,2 Rapamycin may delay reen-
dothelialization and induce the expression of procoagulants,
which promote the risk of in-stent thrombosis. Previously,
Vaughan’s group2 reported that rapamycin increased
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63(5) 336
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DOI: 10.1177/0003319711433421
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plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) and decreased
tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA) expression. These findings
paved the way for my study. I found that HUVECs treated
with rapamycin demonstrated concentration-dependent
increases in PAI-1 and concentration-dependent decreases
in t-PA expression.1
My work1 confirmed the findings of Vaughan’s group2 from
another point of view. I realize how important their work is and
sincerely value their contribution.
References
1. Ma Q, Zhou Y, Nie X, et al. Rapamycin Affects Tissue Plasmino-
gen Activator and Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1 Expression:
A Potential Prothrombotic Mechanism of Drug-Eluting Stents.
Angiology. 2011;9.
2. Muldowney JA 3rd, Stringham JR, Levy SE, et al. Antiproliferative
agents alter vascular plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 expression:
a potential prothrombotic mechanism of drug-eluting stents. Arter-
ioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2007;27:400-406.
1
Department of Cardiology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital Affiliated to the Capital
Medical University, Beijing, China
Corresponding Author:
Qian Ma, Department of Cardiology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital Affiliated to the
Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China
Email: fsmaqian@163.com