Oxidative Stress & Cardiovascular Disease

Big Endothelin

Serum, plasma

Centrifuge freshly collected blood as soon as possible
Store centrifuged samples at -20°C for longer storage.
Samples are stable up to 4 freeze and thaw cycles.
Hemolyzed or lipemic samples may cause erroneous results.

Median (serum) = 0.09 pmol/l (n = 41)

Human

Intended use:

Big Endothelin-1 (BigET) is a peptide of 38 amino acids and is the precursor of Endothelin-1 (ET), represented by amino acids 1-21 (http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/P05305). ET is a potent vasoconstrictor and is produced by vascular endothelial cells. Accordingly it has a wide tissue distribution (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/UniGene/ESTProfileViewer.cgi?uglist=Hs.511899). The cleavage of BigET by Endothelin Converting Enzyme (ECE) leads to ET and to a C-terminal fragment. Both BigET and ET are strong independent predictors of survival in patients with congestive heart failure, and identify a population with very high risk mortality. The half-life of ET (1-21) in plasma is less than one minute, whereas clearance of BigET is much slower. BigET can therefore be determined more easily.

Intended applications:

• atherosclerosis
• prognostic value in heart failure and acute myocardial infarction
• renal insufficiency during and after graft rejection
• pulmonary hypertension and scleroderma