Abstract

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile vasculitis of childhood and is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in the developed world. If untreated, KD can result in coronary aneurysms in 25% of patients, who are at risk of myocardial infarction, sudden death, and congestive heart failure. Despite the success, 10-20% of children will have persistent or recrudescent fever after their first infusion of IVIG. These patients are at increased risk of developing coronary artery abnormalities. Additional therapies should be explored to decrease the incidence of coronary arteritis complication and improve the prognosis in Kawasaki disease. Induced autophagy with resveratrol confers cardioprotection during ischemia and reperfusion in rats. KD is associated with elevated production of inflammatory cytokines, causing damage to the coronary arteries. Serum TNF-alpha levels are elevated in KD, which was supposed to activate the endothelial cells. As a result, adhesion molecules such as intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1(VCAM-1) are expressed in the endothelial cells, and leucocytes adhere firmly to endothelial cells. The leucocytes then damage the endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells and cause vasculitis. In this study, we examined the anti-inflammatory effects of resveratrol on TNF-alpha-induced adhesion molecule expression (VCAM-1 and ICAM-1) and cytokine production (interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6 and IL-8) in HCAECs. Pretreatment with resveratrol significantly inhibited TNF-alpha-induced adhesion molecules and cytokines production in HCAECs via the activation of autophagy. Our results suggest that adjunctive resveratrol therapy may modulate the inflammatory response during KD vasculitis and explore the role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of the complication and the promising therapy.

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