Abstract #0778

Tropoelastin: A novel marker for atherosclerotic plaque instability

Alkystis Phinikaridou¹, Sara Lacerda², Begoña Lavin¹, Marcelo Andia³, Alberto Smith⁴, Prakash Saha⁴, and René M Botnar¹

¹Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire, CNRS, Orleans, France, ³Radiology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, ⁴Academic Department of Vascular Surgery, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Elastolysis and ineffective elastogenesis favour the accumulation of tropoelastin, rather than cross-linked elastin, in atherosclerotic plaques and could provide a new marker for plaque progression and instability. We developed a novel tropoelastin-binding gadolinium-based MRI contrast agent and demonstrated the feasibility of molecular imaging of tropoelastin in rabbits. Rupture-prone plaques had significantly higher uptake of the contrast agent compared with stable plaques and quantitive assessment of tropoelastin allowed detection of rupture-prone plaques with high sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values. Ex vivo analyses confirmed the MRI findings and showed that uptake of the contrast agent was specific for tropoelastin.

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