Possible role of circulating endothelial cells in patients after acute myocardial infarction

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) occurs as a result of insufficient myocardial perfusion leading to cell necrosis. This is most commonly due to the obstruction of the coronary artery by ruptured atherosclerotic plaque and thrombosis. Damaged ischemic and necrotic myocardial cells release pro-inflammatory substances in tissue and plasma, leading to a systemic inflammatory response. Profound systemic inflammatory response during ischemia/reperfusion injury causes disruption of endothelial glycocalyx and detachment of endothelial cells that express von Willebrant factor (vWF). We hypothesize that circulating vWF+ endothelial cells could act as antigen presenting cells which interact with T and NK cells directly, by cell to cell contact and indirectly by cytokine and chemokine secretion, leading to the immune response towards inflammation. Analyzing the frequency, phenotype and pro-inflammatory substances produced in circulating vWF positive (+) cells in patients with AMI could be beneficial to determine the severity of the pro-inflammatory response, according to the level of endothelial dysfunction in the early period of AMI. To evaluate these hypotheses, we suggest to determine frequency, phenotype, and ability of cytokine/chemokine production in circulating vWF+ endothelial cells by simultaneous surface and intracellular cell staining, and flow cytometry analysis. Secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, pro-atherogenic substances and the components of glycocalyx might be measured in supernatants of magnetically separated or sorted vWF+ endothelial cells, as well as in the serum of a patient with acute AMI by enzyme linked-immunoassay tests. The interaction of increasing concentrations of isolated circulating vWF+ endothelial cells and cognate T and NK cells might be investigated by lymphocyte proliferation rate, cytotoxic mediators' expression, and cytokine production. If our hypothesis is correct, characterization of circulating vWF+ endothelial cells could grant us greater insight into their role in pathophysiology of AMI and the degree of myocardial damage.