[Variations in mesenchymal cell activity between rheumatic and non-rheumatic valve disease]

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis of mesenchymal cells in the diseased valve tissue of patients with rheumatic and non-rheumatic valve diseases were compared. Surgically resected mitral valves from eight rheumatic and eight non-rheumatic patients in their 40s were examined immunohistochemically to estimate the activity of the various mesenchymal cells by cell cycle analysis, using monoclonal antibodies to cyclin E, A, B1, p53, and b cl-2 after routine tissue fixation, paraffin embedding and sectioning. Cyclin B1-positive fibrocytes and fibroblasts of the spongiosa and fibrosa were observed in all non-rheumatic cases, whereas some lymphocytes in the perivascular area were cyclin B1-, p53- and b cl-2-positive in rheumatic cases. The distinct qualitative difference in the mesenchymal cells of valve tissue between rheumatic and non-rheumatic etiologies suggests a different mode of valve pathology.