Objective To study the correlative relationship of activated T cell chemokine (RANTES) and high blood glucose and coronary heart disease, and investigate the role of RANTES factor in hyperglycemia and coronary heart disease.

Methods The 360 patients were divided into Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) group (n=300) and control group (n=60) according to the Coronary Angiography (CAG), and CHD group were divided into acute coronary syndrome (ACS) group (n=180) and stable angina pectoris (SAP) group (n=120). The severity and extent of coronary lesions was analysed by CAG and typified by means of Gensini coronary score system. Blood samples of ACS patients were taken immediately on admission, and the 12 h fasting blood samples of other patients were taken in the day after admission, all patients were taken 3 ml blood from elbow vein and put into anticoagulant tube. Then all samples were centrifuged for 10 min with the speed of 3000 r/min, and the separated serum was frozen at −80°C refrigerator waiting for test. Linked immunosorent assay was used to measure the RANTES concentration. We expressed the level of RANTES and other biochemical indicators in all groups with, and compare the differences between the three groups using AVONA (analysis of variance). And then, q test was used for pairwise comparison; multiple regression equation was used for analysing the relationships of RANTES chemokine, blood glucose and coronary artery disease; Spearman's correlation coefficient was used for analysing the correlation of RANTES chemokine and blood glucose.

Results Significantly increasing of RANTES concentration was observed in ACS group (222.57±28.55 pg/ml) compared to the SAP group (199.77±22.20 pg/ml) and the control group (162.06±13.15 pg/ml) (p<0.05). Positive correlation were seen between RANTE chemokines, fasting glucose, LDL-C and the Gensini score of coronary artery lesions (p<0.05). Hyperglycemia was positively correlated with RANTES concentration (r=0.69, p<0.05).

Conclusions Hyperglycemia plays an important role in occurrence and prognosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and blood glucose was positively correlated with RANTES concentration. The increasing of RANTES levels consistent with the increasing of the risk of type 2 diabetes, it plays an important role in various complications of diabetes, and blood sugar, RANTES associated with coronary artery disease. RANTES factor may play an important role in high blood sugar and coronary artery inflammation complications, especially for the stability of ACS vulnerable plaque. The mechanism is that high glucose and its metabolites end products (AGE) may be play an important role in the incidence of coronary heart disease, especially in ACS by the NF-Kβ/RANTES/MMP-9 ways.