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1: Immun Ageing. 2007 May 8;4:3.Click here to read Click here to read Links

NK cell compartment in patients with coronary heart disease.

Hak Ł, Myśliwska J, Wieckiewicz J, Szyndler K, Trzonkowski P, Siebert J, Myśliwski A.

Department of Histology and Immunology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland. lhak@amg.gda.pl

BACKGROUND: Viral and bacterial infections have been considered as a risk factor for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). NK cells, as a first line of defense against those infections, may play a role in CHD development. Thus, the main aim of our study was to determine NK cell compartment in patients with CHD undergoing coronary artery by-pass grafting. RESULTS: Ninety three patients with CHD were included into the study; the control group consisted of 49 healthy volunteers. As compared to controls, CHD patients had lower NK cytotoxic activity. CHD group had also a decreased absolute number and percentage of total NK cells and CD3-CD56dim cytotoxic NK subset. In addition, we observed tendency toward lower percentage of the CD3-CD56bright regulatory NK subset and CD3-CD56+IFN-gamma+ cells in CHD patients. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that CHD is associated with an impairment of NK cells compartment.

PMID: 17488493 [PubMed]

PMCID: PMC1878503