Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 4, 2026

Isolation and Identification of Extravascular Immune Cells of the Heart
Published on: August 23, 2018
Innate immune cells in ischaemic heart disease: does myocardial infarction beget myocardial infarction?
Matthias Nahrendorf1, Filip K Swirski1
1Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA mnahrendorf@mgh.harvard.edu mnahrendorf@partners.org fswirski@mgh.harvard.edu.
Abstract:
Knowledge of macrophages in steady-state and diseased tissue is rapidly expanding, propelled by improved diagnostic capacity to detect and monitor cells in their native environments. In this review, we discuss implications for ischaemic heart disease and examine innate immune cell pathways that increase systemic leucocyte supply after myocardial infarction (MI). Acute MI alters the macrophage phenotype and supply chain from tissue resident to blood monocytes sourced from haematopoietic organs. That blood leucocytosis closely associates with cardiovascular mortality provides a strong motivation to understand why and how organ ischaemia alters cellular immunity.
Related Concept Videos
Ischemic Heart Disease: Overview
Atherosclerosis, the primary malefactor, orchestrates this dangerous condition. It manifests as the accumulation of fatty deposits, akin to insidious plaques, within arterial walls. As time elapses, these plaques metamorphose, hardening and...
Myocarditis I: Introduction
Inflammation
Cells of the Innate Immune Response
Phagocytes
Phagocytes police the peripheral tissues by removing cellular debris and responding to the invasion of foreign substances or pathogens. Many phagocytes attack and remove microorganisms even before lymphocytes detect them. The human body has two general...
Inflammatory Response I: Vascular and Cellular
Coronary Artery Disease II: Pathophysiology

