This may happen not necessarily through the action of elevated glucose levels, but perhaps through the action of insulin. Insulin could act not only on insulin receptors but also on insulin/IGF receptor hybrids, and IGF receptors could play a role in cell proliferation. Magnesium seems to act as a cofactor for insulin receptor-associated tyrosine kinase activity,XAV939 one among a large number of physiological actions of this element. Considerable controversy exists concerning the role of magnesium in cardiovascular disease. Uric acid has been suggested to play a role in cardiorenal disease, namely in arterial hypertension, but also in coronary artery disease. In the present investigation, plasma uric acid was correlated to CADB in univariate but not in linear regression analysis. In the context of the present investigation, one may speculate that higher plasma glucose, probably in the presence of elevated plasma insulin, could be associated to a growth-stimulating effect on atherosclerotic lesions, perhaps involving magnesium as a cofactor for insulin-stimulated growth. This latter phenomenon, at least in vascular smooth muscle cells,XL-184 may depend on the stimulation of intracellular pathways involving mitogen-activated protein kinases. Recent data show that the use of an insulin sensitizer was associated with a lower rate of progression of coronary atherosclerosis than the use of an insulin secretagogue in patients with type 2 diabetes, data that may be interpreted taking into consideration the line of reasoning presented above. The data concerning the subgroup analysis must be viewed with great caution, since it is not clear that the clinical background is similar for both subgroups of patients. The well-known finding of higher HDL cholesterol in female patients was seen, but it is unclear if the remaining findings could represent a common pattern in patients with coronary atherosclerosis. Limitations of the present study include the relatively small sample of patients. Angiography is a technique that detects major coronary arterial lesions, leaving important segments of diseased vessels unrecognized as such. Patients were observed as outpatients at a cardiology clinic, and so several types of selection bias may be at play.