Apoptotic cardiomyocyte death in fatal myocarditis

Acute myocarditis is often a self-limited process with a good outcome. Experimental animal studies have found that cardiomyocyte apoptosis occurs in severe forms of myocarditis. We studied whether cardiomyocyte apoptosis plays a role in the development of fatal acute human myocarditis. Myocardial au...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of cardiology 2004-09, Vol.94 (6), p.746-750
Main Authors: Kytö, Ville, Saraste, Antti, Saukko, Pekka, Henn, V.éronique, Pulkki, Kari, Vuorinen, Tytti, Voipio-Pulkki, Liisa-Maria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis of Variance
Apoptosis
Biological and medical sciences
Cardiology
Cardiology. Vascular system
Case-Control Studies
Caspase 3
Caspases - metabolism
Cells
DNA Fragmentation
Fatalities
Female
Finland - epidemiology
Heart
Heart failure
Humans
In Situ Nick-End Labeling
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Myocarditis - mortality
Myocarditis - pathology
Myocarditis. Cardiomyopathies
Myocytes, Cardiac - enzymology
Myocytes, Cardiac - pathology
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Summary:Acute myocarditis is often a self-limited process with a good outcome. Experimental animal studies have found that cardiomyocyte apoptosis occurs in severe forms of myocarditis. We studied whether cardiomyocyte apoptosis plays a role in the development of fatal acute human myocarditis. Myocardial autopsy samples from subjects who died of acute myocarditis in Finland between 1970 and 1998 were studied. Thirty-three of these cases(16 men and 17 women; 45 ± 6 years old) were randomly selected for this study. All cases fulfilled the histopathologic Dallas criteria for myocarditis. Eight subjects who had died accidentally served as controls. Apoptotic DNA fragmentation (terminal transferase-mediated DNA nick end labeling) and activation of caspase-3 (immunohistochemistry) were detected. The mode of death was determined retrospectively from all available clinical data. In fatal myocarditis, large amounts of cardiomyocytes showed apoptotic DNA fragmentation or contained active caspase-3 (2.0 ± 0.3% and 2.8 ± 0.4%, respectively). In the controls, few apoptotic cardiomyocytes were found (0.008 ± 0.003% by terminal transferase-mediated DNA nick end labeling and 0.009 ± 0.003% by detection of active caspase-3, p
ISSN:0002-9149
1879-1913
DOI:10.1016/j.amjcard.2004.05.056