Study record
Downregulation of circulating MOTS-c levels in patients with coronary endothelial dysfunction
Qin Q, Delrio S, Wan J et al. · Int J Cardiol · 2018
What this study reported
Found lower plasma MOTS-c in patients with coronary endothelial dysfunction than in those with normal endothelial function, and plasma MOTS-c correlated positively with microvascular and epicardial endothelial function. In aortic rings from rats and renal artery stenosis mice, MOTS-c pretreatment had no direct vasoactive effect but was associated with improved responsiveness to acetylcholine.
Limitations
Small cross-sectional sample from a single clinical setting, so direction of association cannot be established; ex-vivo exposure used a single pretreatment condition.
Study record
| Study model | Human observational |
|---|---|
| Substance studied | SeveralMore than one of these is central to the paper (common for reviews). |
| Species | human, rat, mouse |
| System studied | Patients undergoing coronary angiography and endothelial function testing; aortic rings from rats and renal artery stenosis mice |
| Population | patients with recurrent angina and no structural coronary lesions, with or without coronary endothelial dysfunction |
| Design | Cross-sectional case comparison with ex-vivo vascular reactivity experiments |
| Sample size as reported | 40 patients (20 with endothelial dysfunction, 20 with normal endothelial function) |
| Control group | patients with normal coronary endothelial function; untreated aortic rings |
| Route (data field only) | in-culture |
| Endpoints measured | aortic plasma MOTS-c (ELISA); coronary blood flow response to acetylcholine; microvascular and epicardial endothelial function; aortic ring responsiveness to acetylcholine |
| Pathways measured | Not reported |
| Research areas | Cardiovascular |
| Evidence tier | B — Other human study |
| Publication types | Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't |
Appraisal
Each dimension is recorded separately and never combined into a single score. A study can be well controlled and still tell you little about people.
- Relevance to MOTS-c
- Direct
- Model applicability
- Human
- Sample size
- Small
- Controls
- Appropriate
- Outcome validity
- Validated biomarker
- Support for its own conclusion
- Moderate
Provenance
- Bibliographic fields retrieved from PubMed E-utilities efetch (title, journal, date, authors, DOI) on 2026-11-11.
- Annotated from the published abstract.
- Editorial review: approved (2026-11-11).
- Classification follows the site methodology; the record describes the study, not what MOTS-c does in people.