Elevated resting heart rate as a predictor of inflammation and cardiovascular risk in healthy obese individuals

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 13883 - 11
• Main Authors: Al-Rashed, Fatema, Sindhu, Sardar, Al Madhoun, Ashraf, Ahmad, Zunair, AlMekhled, Dawood, Azim, Rafaat, Al-Kandari, Sarah, Wahid, Maziad Al-Abdul, Al-Mulla, Fahd, Ahmad, Rasheed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06.07.2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/250; 631/250/256; Blood pressure; Cardiovascular diseases; CD11b antigen; CD11c antigen; CD14 antigen; CD16 antigen; CD8 antigen; Cholesterol; Gelatinase B; Health risks; Heart rate; Histocompatibility antigen HLA; Humanities and Social Sciences; Inflammation; Leukocytes (neutrophilic); Lymphocytes T; Monocytes; multidisciplinary; Permeability; Phenotypes; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); TLR2 protein; TLR4 protein; Toll-like receptors; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Vascular endothelial growth factor
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93449-5

The role of leukocyte inflammatory markers and toll like receptors (TLRs)2/4 in pathologies associated with elevated resting heart rate (RHR) levels in healthy obese (HO) individuals is not well elucidated. Herein, we investigated the relationship of RHR with expression of leukocyte-inflammatory markers and TLRs in HO individuals. 58-obese and 57-lean participants with no history of a major medical condition, were recruited in this study. In HO individuals, the elevated-RHR correlated positively with diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol, pro-inflammatory monocytes CD11b + CD11c + CD206 − phenotype (r = 0.52, P  = 0.0003) as well as with activated T cells CD8 + HLA-DR + phenotype (r = 0.27, P  = 0.039). No association was found between RHR and the percentage of CD16 + CD11b + neutrophils. Interestingly, elevated RHR positively correlated with cells expressing TLR4 and TLR2 (CD14 + TLR4 + , r = 0.51, P  ≤ 0.0001; and CD14 + TLR2 + , r = 0.42 , P  = 0.001). TLR4 + expressing cells also associated positively with the plasma concentrations of proinflammatory or vascular permeability/matrix modulatory markers including TNF-α (r = 0.36, P  = 0.005), VEGF (r = 0.47, P = 0.0002), and MMP-9 (r = 0.53, P  ≤ 0.0001). Multiple regression revealed that RHR is independently associated with CD14 + TLR4 + monocytes and VEGF. We conclude that in HO individuals, increased CD14 + TLR4 + monocytes and circulatory VEGF levels associated independently with RHR, implying that RHR monitoring could be used as a non-invasive clinical indicator to identify healthy obese individuals at an increased risk of developing inflammation and cardiovascular disease.