Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of mortality. Inflammation is implicated in HF, yet clinical trials targeting pro-inflammatory cytokines in HF were unsuccessful, possibly due to redundant functions of individual cytokines. Searching for better cardiac inflammation targets, here we link T cells with HF development in a mouse model of pathological cardiac hypertrophy and in human HF patient...

OBJECTIVE We investigated the effect of pharmacological inhibition of the interleukin converting enzyme (ICE) on cardiac inflammation, apoptosis, fibrosis, and left ventricular function in an animal model of diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Diabetes was induced in 24 Sprague-Dawley rats by injection of streptozotozin (STZ) (70 mg/kg). Diabetic animals were treated with the interleukin co...

OBJECTIVE Severe blunt chest trauma in humans is associated with high mortality rates. Whereas lung tissue damage and lung inflammation after blunt chest trauma have extensively been investigated, the traumatic and posttraumatic effects on the heart remain poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to define cardiac injury patterns in an experimental blunt chest trauma model in...

Fructose consumption induces metabolic syndrome to increase cardiovascular disease risk. Cinnamaldehyde and allopurinol possess anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory activity to relieve heart injury in metabolic syndrome. But the mechanisms of fructose-induced cardiac injury, and cardioprotective effects of cinnamaldehyde and allopurinol are not completely understood. In this study, fructose-fed...

BACKGROUND Inflammation, overhydration and elevated cardiac biomarkers are related to outcome in haemodialysis (HD) patients. Here, we explored the relationship between the body composition (BC), inflammation and cardiac biomarker concentrations in HD patients longitudinally. METHODS A total of 44 HD patients were followed for 6 months. BC was assessed by multifrequency bioimpedance (BIA). Se...

BACKGROUND Constrictive pericarditis represents a serious hemodynamic syndrome that may lead to heart failure. Studies of its pathophysiological mechanisms have been impeded by the lack of an animal model. METHODS AND RESULTS Cardiac myosin-induced experimental autoimmune myocarditis in interferon (IFN)-gamma-knockout (KO) mice results in increased cardiac inflammation and development of seve...

Mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) blockade has been shown to suppress cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling in animal models of pressure overload (POL). This study aims to determine whether MR deficiency in myeloid cells modulates aortic constriction-induced cardiovascular injuries. Myeloid MR knockout (MMRKO) mice and littermate control mice were subjected to abdominal aortic constriction (AAC) or ...

RATIONALE The extracellular matrix may induce detrimental inflammatory responses on degradation, causing adverse cardiac remodeling and heart failure. The extracellular matrix protein fibronectin-EDA (EIIIA; EDA) is upregulated after tissue injury and may act as a "danger signal" for leukocytes to cause adverse cardiac remodeling after infarction. OBJECTIVE In the present study, we evaluated ...

The cardiac natriuretic peptides atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) are discoordinately regulated in myocardial inflammation associated with acute allograft rejection in humans and during in vitro exposure of cardiocyte cultures to some proinflammatory cytokines. We used experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) to determine whether the discoordinate regulation ...