Potential of C‐X‐C motif chemokine ligand 1/8/10/12 as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension

Objective This study aimed to evaluate the clinical role of C‐X‐C motif chemokine ligand (CXCL) family members in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) patients. Methods CXCL1, CXCL8, CXCL10 and CXCL12 expressions in the serum samples of IPAH patients ( N  = 39) and age‐/gender‐matched controls ( N  = 40) were detected by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. In IPAH patients, clinical features were collected, and survival information was documented. Results CXCL1 ( P  < 0.001), CXCL8 ( P  = 0.001), CXCL10 ( P  < 0.001) and CXCL12 ( P  < 0.001) were increased in IPAH patients compared with controls, and receiver's operating characteristic curves showed that their combination was highly correlated with IPAH risk (area under curve: 0.881, 95% confidence interval: 0.805–0.958). Meanwhile, CXCL1 was positively correlated with mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) ( P  = 0.029) and high‐sensitive C‐reactive protein (HsCRP) ( P  = 0.015); CXCL8 was positively correlated with mPAP ( P  = 0.044) and HsCRP ( P  = 0.018) but negatively correlated with 6‐minute walk test (6MWT) distance ( P  = 0.029); CXCL10 was positively correlated with mean right artery pressure ( P  = 0.002); and CXCL12 was positively correlated with World Health Organization functional class ( P  = 0.047), mPAP ( P  = 0.009), pulmonary vascular resistance ( P  = 0.004) and HsCRP ( P  = 0.003) but negatively correlated with 6MWT distance ( P  = 0.003) in IPAH patients. Moreover, CXCL12 was negatively correlated with overall survival (OS) ( P  = 0.025), whereas CXCL1, CXCL8 and CXCL10 only showed minor tendencies to be negatively correlated with OS in IPAH patients without statistical significance (all P  > 0.05). Conclusion CXCL1, CXCL8, CXCL10 and CXCL12 associate with increased IPAH risk, unfavourable clinical features; besides, CXCL12 correlates with worse OS in IPAH patients.