Oxidative Stress & Cardiovascular Disease

EDTA plasma, urine, cell culture supernatant

Store freshly collected blood immediately on ice and centrifuged within one day. Samples should be stored at -20°C, for long time storage store at -70°C. Maximum 4 freeze-thaw cycles.
Urine samples can be used without any pre-treatment.

Human

Big Endothelin-1 (Big ET), a small 38-amino-acid peptide, is a biological precursor of Endothelin (1-21), the most potent vasoconstrictor known today. Various cell types including vascular endothelial cells and non-vascular cells (eg. mesanglial, kidney and epithelial cells) produce Endothelin.
Cleavage of Big Endothelin by a membrane-bound metalloproteinase, the Endothelin Converting Enzyme, leads to the active Endothelin (1-21) and to the biological inactive C-terminal fragment (22-38). The physiological importance of cleavage of Big Endothelin is indicated by the reported 140-fold increase in vasoconstrictor activity upon cleavage to Endothelin-1, although both petides can be determined in about equimolar concentrations in plasma. It was demonstrated that the half-life of Endothelin (1-21) in the plasma is less than one minute, whereas clearance of Big Endothelin is about one hour.

Clinical significance:
• Prognostic value in heart failure and acute myocardial infarction
• renal insufficiency
• during an after graft rejection
• increased plasma levels: hypercholesterolemia
• artherosclerosis
• pulmonary hypertension and scleroderma.
• oncology