Association of GDF-15 and Syntax Score in Patient with Acute Myocardial Infarction

Prognostic value of growth differentiation factor-15 in patients with coronary artery disease: A meta-analysis and systematic review

Background and aims

The predictive value of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) for individual cardiovascular outcomes remained controversial in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). We aimed to investigate the effects of GDF-15 on all-cause death, cardiovascular death, MI and stroke in CAD patients.

Methods

We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library and Web of Science till 30 December, 2020. Hazard ratios (HRs) were combined with fixed or random effect meta-analyses. Subgroup analyses were performed in different disease types. Sensitivity analyses were used to evaluate the stability of the results. Publication bias was tested using funnel plots.

Results

A total of 10 studies with 49,443 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Patients with the highest GDF-15 concentrations had significantly increased risk of all-cause death (HR 2.24; 95% CI: 1.95-2.57), cardiovascular death (HR 2.00; 95% CI: 1.66-2.42), MI (HR 1.42; 95% CI: 1.21-1.66) after adjusting clinical characteristics and prognostic biomarkers (hs-TnT, cystatin C, hs-CRP, and NT-proBNP) but except for stroke (HR 1.43; 95% CI: 1.01-2.03, p = 0.05). For the outcome of all-cause death and cardiovascular death, subgroup analyses revealed consistent results. Sensitivity analyses showed that the results were stable. Funnel plots showed that there was no publication bias.

Conclusion

In CAD patients with elevated GDF-15 levels on admission, there were independently significant risks for all-cause death and cardiovascular death. The highest concentrations of GDF-15 had a lower predictive effect on MI than all-cause death and cardiovascular death. The association of GDF-15 with the outcome of stroke needs to be further studied.

GDF15 Contributes to Radioresistance by Mediating the EMT and Stemness of Breast Cancer Cells

Radiotherapy is one of the conventional methods for the clinical treatment of breast cancer. However, radioresistance has an adverse effect on the prognosis of breast cancer patients after radiotherapy. In this study, using bioinformatic analysis of GSE59732 and GSE59733 datasets in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database together with the prognosis database of breast cancer patients after radiotherapy, the GDF15 gene was screened out to be related to the poor prognosis of breast cancer after radiotherapy. Compared with radiosensitive parental breast cancer cells, breast cancer cells with acquired radioresistance exhibited a high level of GDF15 expression and enhanced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) properties of migration and invasion, as well as obvious stem-like traits, including the increases of mammosphere formation ability, the proportion of stem cells (CD44⁺ CD24^- cells), and the expressions of stem cell-related markers (SOX2, NANOG). Moreover, knockdown of GDF15 sensitized the radioresistance cells to irradiation and significantly inhibited their EMT and stem-like traits, indicating that GDF15 promoted the radioresistance of breast cancer by enhancing the properties of EMT and stemness. Conclusively, GDF15 may be applicable as a novel prognosis-related biomarker and a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer radiotherapy.

Serum GDF-15 Predicts In-Hospital Mortality and Arrhythmic Risks in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction

This study aims to evaluate the association of serum growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) with in-hospital mortality and arrhythmic risks in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). A total of 296 consecutive patients with AMI were enrolled in our hospital from Jan. 2018 to Dec. 2020. Serum GDF-15 levels were measured at baseline. The primary endpoint was in-hospital all-cause mortality, and the secondary endpoint was major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) during hospitalization, defined as a composite of cardiovascular death, heart failure, sustained ventricular arrhythmias (ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation), and bleeding. During hospitalization, patients with a higher GDF-15 level had significantly higher incidences of in-hospital mortality (7.4% vs 1.4%; P = .02) and MACEs (9.5% vs 20.9%, P < .01) than those with a lower GDF-15 level. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that a higher GDF-15 level was significantly associated with increased risks of in-hospital mortality (OR = 1.92, 95% CI: 1.44-2.50; P < .01) and MACEs (OR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.56-2.77; P < .01). In conclusion, GDF-15 was associated with the risks of in-hospital mortality and MACEs, indicating that it should be a prognostic biomarker for patients with AMI.