Myocardial Inflammation Predicts Remodeling and Neuroinflammation After Myocardial Infarction

The local inflammatory tissue response after acute myocardial infarction (MI) determines subsequent healing. Systemic interaction may induce neuroinflammation as a precursor to neurodegeneration.

This study sought to assess the influence of MI on cardiac and brain inflammation using noninvasive positron emission tomography (PET) of the heart-brain axis.

After coronary artery ligation or sham surgery, mice (n = 49) underwent serial whole-body PET imaging of the mitochondrial translocator protein (TSPO) as a marker of activated macrophages and microglia. Patients after acute MI (n = 3) were also compared to healthy controls (n = 9).

Infarct mice exhibited elevated myocardial TSPO signal at 1 week versus sham (percent injected dose per gram: 8.0 ± 1.6 vs. 4.8 ± 0.9; p < 0.001), localized to activated CD68⁺ inflammatory cells in the infarct. Early TSPO signal predicted subsequent left ventricular remodeling at 8 weeks (r_partial = -0.687; p = 0.001). In parallel, brain TSPO signal was elevated at 1 week (1.7 ± 0.2 vs. 1.4 ± 0.2 for sham; p = 0.017), localized to activated microglia. After interval decline at 4 weeks, progressive heart failure precipitated a second wave of neuroinflammation (1.8 ± 0.2; p = 0.005). TSPO was concurrently up-regulated in remote cardiomyocytes at 8 weeks (8.8 ± 1.7, p < 0.001) without inflammatory cell infiltration, suggesting mitochondrial impairment. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor treatment lowered acute inflammation in the heart (p = 0.003) and brain (p = 0.06) and improved late cardiac function (p = 0.05). Patients also demonstrated elevation of cardiac TSPO signal in the infarct territory, paralleled by neuroinflammation versus controls.

The brain is susceptible to acute MI and chronic heart failure. Immune activation may interconnect heart and brain dysfunction, a finding that provides a foundation for strategies to improve heart and brain outcomes.