Characteristics of immune response and inflammatory reaction in atherothrombotic stroke and myocardial infarction

Abstract

To study characteristics of ischemic tissue damage basing on the assessment of the correlations between markers of immune response, inflammation and apoptosis in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and atherothrombotic stroke (AS). Concentrations of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), immune complexes with cryogenic properties, soluble Fas-ligand, tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-10 measured with ELISA as well as the activity of spontaneous apoptosis of mononuclear cells and surface expression of Toll-like receptors-4 and intracellular heat shock proteins measured with flow cytofluorometry were determined in the blood of 93 patients with the first AS and 94 patients with MI without concomitant inflammation in the 1st and 7th day of the disease. Increased levels of the markers of immune response, inflammation, apoptosis and destruction of the extracellular matrix were identified at the beginning of MI and AS. The results provide the evidence that similar mechanisms may be involved in ischemic tissue damage. Multivariate analysis conducterd by of principal component analysis correlation matrix revealed the specificity of the relationships between all of these markers. This is the completely new approach to assessin the role and importance of defined parameters in the acute period of the myocardial ischemia and brain.