Cellular immune mechanisms in myocarditis

The introduction of immunohistological techniques enabled a substantially more reliable diagnosis of inflammatory cardiomyopathy (DCMi) in endomyocardial biopsies (EMB) compared to the histological Dallas criteria. Decisive progress has been made in the understanding of cellular immune mechanisms in DCMi using immunohistological techniques, which apart from the field of diagnosis refinement have had prognostic implications and an influence on the selection criteria of DCMi patients who will likely benefit from immunosuppressive treatment. Digital image analysis systems have been employed to standardize quantification of immunohistological EMB stainings. Quantification of T cell-related genes by a methodologically validated preamplified real-time RT-PCR revealed that the T cells are characterized by differential expression of Th1-, Treg-, and CTL-related markers, while no major role could be confirmed for Th17 cells. The reported virus-associated differential T cell receptor Vbeta dominance suggests an antiviral specificity of virus-induced T cell responses in human DCMi.