Background: Some experimental evidence suggests that uric acid impairs endothelial function. It is controversial if high uric acid levels and impaired endothelial function are related in healthy adults. In addition, the effect of uric acid on endothelial cells (ECs) of humans is unexplored.
Methods: Data of 107 healthy adult volunteers were analyzed. The association between serum uric acid and endothelial-dependant dilation (EDD) and endothelial-independent dilation (EID) was evaluated by linear regression models. We also examined the relations between uric acid and systemic and cellular markers of inflammation and oxidative stress in all or subsets of participants.
Results: Uric acid levels and EDD were not related in unadjusted or adjusted models. There was a significant negative correlation between uric acid and EID in the pooled sample (r = -0.34, P = 0.005). This correlation remained significant after adjusting for demographics (P = 0.04) and was attenuated after adjusting for other cardiac risk factors (P = 0.12). Higher serum uric acid levels were found to correlate significantly with C-reactive protein (CRP) (r = 0.31, P = 0.002). Serum uric acid levels were not associated with brachial artery EC nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65 or NADPH oxidase p47(phox) expression or with nitrotyrosine staining, but were inversely associated with EC manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) expression (r = -0.5, P = 0.01, n = 25).
Conclusion: Elevated serum uric acid is not associated with endothelial dysfunction among healthy adults, but is inversely related to EID and EC MnSOD, and positively related to systemic inflammation. These findings may have implications for cardiovascular risk in healthy adults.