Abstract: Objective To investigate the relationship between serum chemokine CXCL16 and CD36 in vulnerable carotid atherosclerosis plaques with large artery atherosclerosis (LAA)-stoke. Methods Fifty patients with LAA-cerebral infarction and carotid vulnerable plaque (infarction group), 50 patients with carotid vulnerable plaque (plaque group) and 50 healthy subjects in the same period (control group) were included in this study. The cervical vascular color ultrasonic inspection was performed in three groups. Data of body mass index (BMI) were calculated in three groups. Levels of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL- C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL- C) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were also detected in three groups. The enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the serum levels of CXCL16 and CD36 in three groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the influence factors of LAA-cerebral infarction. Results Levels of BMI, TG, TC, LDL-C and FBG were higher, and the level of HDL-C was lower in infarction group and plaque group than those in control group. Levels of TG, TC, LDLC and FBG were significantly higher in infarction group than those of plaque group, and levels of BMI and HDL-C were significantly lower in infarction group than those in plaque group (P<0.05). Both serum levels of CXCL16 and CD36 showed significantly increased trend in control group, plaque group and infarction group. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the higher levels of TG, LDL-C, FBG, CXCL16 and CD36 were the independent risk factors for large artery atherosclerotic cerebral infarction. Conclusion Serum chemokine CXCL16 and CD36 can be used as a clinical marker of vulnerable carotid plaques. Joint detection of CXCL16 and CD36 can predict the occurrence of LAA-cerebral infarction.

Key words: chemokines, CXC, antigens, CD36, atherosclerosis, brain infarction, CXC chemokine ligand16, vulnerable plaque