1. Immunohistochemical analysis of von Willebrand factor expression in myocardial tissues from autopsies of patients with ischemic heart disease
- Author
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Gentaro Yamasaki, Kanako Nakagawa, Mai Morichika, Azumi Kuse, Takeshi Kondo, Marie Sugimoto, Yasuhiro Ueno, Migiwa Asano, Motonori Takahashi, and Makoto Sakurada
- Subjects
Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Myocardial Infarction ,Myocardial Ischemia ,Von Willebrand factor ,Myocardial remodeling ,Pathology and Forensic Medicine ,Forensic pathology ,Mice ,hemic and lymphatic diseases ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Platelet ,Myocardial infarction ,biology ,business.industry ,Myocardium ,medicine.disease ,Thrombosis ,Immunohistochemistry ,Endothelial marker ,Issues, ethics and legal aspects ,Coagulation ,Hemostasis ,biology.protein ,Autopsy ,business ,Immunostaining ,circulatory and respiratory physiology - Abstract
von Willebrand factor (VWF) plays a crucial role in hemostasis and thrombosis. VWF is involved in platelet attachment to the subendothelium, serving as a carrier protein for coagulation factor VIII. In this study, myocardial tissues from deceased patients with ischemic heart disease and a mouse model of acute myocardial infarction were subjected to immunohistochemistry to determine VWF expression. We examined 28 neutral formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded myocardial tissue samples obtained from the autopsies of patients who were diagnosed with ischemic heart disease within 48 h postmortem. Most myocardial cells were negative for VWF, although some cells showed nonspecific positivity. Elevated VWF expression was observed around myocardial cells undergoing remodeling, suggesting that endothelial proliferation occurred at these sites. In contrast, completely fibrotic myocardial foci did not show upregulated VWF expression. Positivity in fibrin deposition and hemorrhagic sites was observed. The same VWF expression characteristics as those observed in the human samples were observed in the mouse model. VWF immunostaining as an endothelial marker may be a useful supplementation to conventional staining techniques that are currently used in the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease in terms of examining the timing of myocardial remodeling in detail and highlighting the remodeling process.
- Published
- 2022