These results suggest that the DC is a potent immunoprotective regulator during the postinfarction healing process via its control of monocyte/macrophage homeostasis.
Apelin constitutes a novel endogenous peptide system suggested to be involved in a broad range of physiological functions, including cardiovascular function, heart development, control of fluid homeostasis, and obesity. Apelin is also a catalytic substrate for angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, the key severe acute respiratory syndrome receptor. The in vivo physiological role of Apelin is still elusive. Here we report the generation of Apelin gene-targeted mice. Apelin mutant mice are viable and fertile, appear healthy, and exhibit normal body weight, water and food intake, heart rates, and heart morphology. Intriguingly, aged Apelin knockout mice developed progressive impairment of cardiac contractility associated with systolic dysfunction in the absence of histological abnormalities. We also report that pressure overload induces upregulation of Apelin expression in the heart. Importantly, in pressure overload-induced heart failure, loss of Apelin did not significantly affect the hypertrophy response, but Apelin mutant mice developed progressive heart failure. Global gene expression arrays and hierarchical clustering of differentially expressed genes in hearts of banded Apelin(-/y) and Apelin(+/y) mice showed concerted upregulation of genes involved in extracellular matrix remodeling and muscle contraction. These genetic data show that the endogenous peptide Apelin is crucial to maintain cardiac contractility in pressure overload and aging.
Peripheral monocytosis is associated with LV dysfunction and LV aneurysm, suggesting a possible role of monocytes in the development of LV remodeling after reperfused AMI.
Elevated serum HMGB1 levels were associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients with MI. However, HMGB1 blockade in a rat MI model aggravated LV remodelling, possibly through impairment of the infarct-healing process. HMGB1, a novel predictor of adverse clinical outcomes after MI, may have an essential role in the appropriate healing process after MI.
HALT with reduced leaflet motion was not rare but usually subclinical. Valve hemodynamics and mid-term outcomes were uneventful even without additional anticoagulant therapy in our limited number of cases. Male sex, larger sinus and bioprosthesis size, and elevated D-dimer levels during follow-up were associated with this phenomenon.
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