Cell-mediated immune injury to the heart

A micro in vitro procedure was utilized to assess cell-mediated immunity of patients following myocardial infarction or cardiac surgery. For this purpose, peripheral blood leukocytes from patients were tested in a microdroplet assay with antigen preparations derived from human cardiac tissue. Whereas whole saline extract and human myoglobin preparations had little effect on the migration of peripheral blood leukocytes in vitro, mitochondrial preparations were markedly effective in inhibiting migration of the leukocytes in the presence of mitochondrial extracts appeared to reflect development of cell mediated immunity to heart antigens after the myocardial infarct or surgery. These results extend the observations that humoral antibody may appear in patient following cardiac injury. The role of either antibody or sensitized lymphoid cells in mediation of post-myocardial infarction or post-cardiotomy syndromes is not clear, but it appears clear that injury to the heart induced auto-reactive responses which may play a role in subsequent pathologic events following the initial cardiac injury.