Cardiac tissue remodeling in the course of chronic left ventricular hypertrophy requires phagocytes which degrade cellular debris, initiate and maintain tissue inflammation and reorganization. The dynamics of phagocytes in left ventricular hypertrophy have not been systematically studied. Here, we characterized the temporal accumulation of leukocytes in the cardiac immune response by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy at day 3, 6 and 21 following transverse aortic constriction (TAC). Cardiac hypertrophy due to chronic pressure overload causes cardiac immune response and inflammation represented by an increase of immune cells at all three time points among which neutrophils reached their maximum at day 3 and macrophages at day 6. The cardiac macrophage population consisted of both Ly6Clow and Ly6Chigh macrophages. Ly6Clow macrophages were more abundant peaking at day 6 in response to pressure overload. During the development of cardiac hypertrophy the expression pattern of adhesion molecules was investigated by qRT-PCR and flow cytometry. CD11b, CX3CR1 and ICAM-1 determined by qRT-PCR in whole cardiac tissue were up-regulated in response to pressure overload at day 3 and 6. CD11b and CX3CR1 were significantly increased by TAC on the surface of Ly6Clow but not on Ly6Chigh macrophages. Furthermore, ICAM-1 was up-regulated on cardiac endothelial cells. In fluorescence microscopy Ly6Clow macrophages could be observed attached to the intra- and extra-vascular vessel-wall. Taken together, TAC induced the expression of adhesion molecules, which may explain the accumulation of Ly6Clow macrophages in the cardiac tissue, where these cells might contribute to cardiac inflammation and remodeling in response to pressure overload.

Following traumatic brain injury (TBI) neuroinflammatory processes promote neuronal cell loss. Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) is a neuropeptide with immunomodulatory properties, which may offer neuroprotection. Due to short half-life and pigmentary side-effects of α-MSH, the C-terminal tripeptide α-MSH(11–13) may be an anti-inflammatory alternative. The present study investigated the mRNA concentrations of the precursor hormone proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and of melanocortin receptors 1 and 4 (MC1R/MC4R) in naive mice and 15 min, 6, 12, 24, and 48 h after controlled cortical impact (CCI). Regulation of POMC and MC4R expression did not change after trauma, while MC1R levels increased over time with a 3-fold maximum at 12 h compared to naive brain tissue. The effect of α-MSH(11–13) on secondary lesion volume determined in cresyl violet stained sections (intraperitoneal injection 30 min after insult of 1 mg/kg α-MSH(11–13) or 0.9% NaCl) showed a considerable smaller trauma in α-MSH(11–13) injected mice. The expression of the inflammatory markers TNF-α and IL-1β as well as the total amount of Iba-1 positive cells were not reduced. However, cell branch counting of Iba-1 positive cells revealed a reduced activation of microglia. Furthermore, tripeptide injection reduced neuronal apoptosis analyzed by cleaved caspase-3 and NeuN staining. Based on the results single α-MSH(11–13) administration offers a promising neuroprotective property by modulation of inflammation and prevention of apoptosis after traumatic brain injury.