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Studies on inflammatory disorders elucidated the pivotal role of the CX3CL1/CX3CR1 axis with respect to the pathophysiology and diseases progression. Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3)-induced myocarditis is associated with severe cardiac inflammation, which may progress to heart failure. We therefore investigated the influence of CX3CR1 ablation in the model of acute myocarditis, which was induced by inoculation with 5x105 plaque forming units of CVB3 (Nancy strain) in either CX3CR1-/- or C57BL6/j (WT) mice. Seven days after infection, myocardial inflammation, remodeling, and titin expression and phosphorylation were examined by immunohistochemistry, real-time PCR and Pro-Q diamond stain. Cardiac function was assessed by tip catheter. Compared to WT CVB3 mice, CX3CR1-/- CVB3 mice exhibited enhanced left ventricular expression of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which was associated with an increase of immune cell infiltration/presence. This shift towards a pro- inflammatory immune response further resulted in increased cardiac fibrosis and cardiomyocyte apoptosis, which was reflected by an impaired cardiac function in CX3CR1-/- CVB3 compared to WT CVB3 mice. These findings demonstrate a cardioprotective role of CX3CR1 in CVB3-infected mice and indicate the relevance of the CX3CL1/CX3CR1 system in CVB3-induced myocarditis.

Enteroviruses, especially Coxsackie B3 virus (CVB-3), cause acute viral myocarditis, but the detailed mechanisms leading to chronic left ventricular dysfunction and dilatation remain elusive. Myocardial tissues of CVB-3 infected and sham infected male swr/J mice were analyzed after hemodynamic evaluation on days 4, 7, and 28 p.i. by RT-PCR, gelatin zymography, ELISA, immunohistochemistry, sirius red staining, and luxol fast blue staining. In the early phase after infection an abnormal diastolic function was the main hemodynamic finding. CVB-3 infection caused impairment of left ventricular function combined with ventricular dilatation 7 and 28days post-infection. These hemodynamic findings were associated with relevant upregulation of different cytokines (IL-1beta, IL-6, IL-10, INF-gamma, and TNF-alpha) in the acute phase with persistent over-expression of IL-6, IL-10, and INF-gamma in the chronic phase. This virus induced myocardial inflammation was linked to a significant induced MMP/TIMP system (MMP-2,-3,-8, TIMP-1, uPA, tPA-mRNA expression, and MMP-2-activity) in the acute and chronic phase leading to imbalance in the MMP/TIMP-ratio at day 28. This imbalance in the MMP/TIMP system was significantly correlated to the development of ventricular dilatation. Viral persistence induces chronic myocardial inflammation and an imbalance of the matrix degrading system, associated with the development of left ventricular dysfunction and dilatation in chronic murine myocarditis.

Introduction: Inflammation and/or viral infection are both relevant for extracellular matrix remodeling. Therefore the effects of myocardial inflammation on ECM remodeling are analyzed in this study. # Methods and results: Endomyocardial biopsies were obtained from 20 patients with established DCM (2.11±0.44 CD3 cells/mm 2 ) and 29 DCMi patients (18.91±6.41 CD3 cells/mm 2 ) comparable in age (51.45±3.15 vs. 48.48±2.39 years), LVEDD (72.7±2.2 vs. 69.76±1.06mm) and EF (26±2.99 vs. 25.86±2.0%). Total collagen content was quantified by picosiriusredstaining while the MMP2, MMP3 and TIMP1 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. The MMP1, MMP3 and TIMP1 and ICTP expression in the serum was quantified by Elisa. and levels of IL6 and IL8 were measured by BioPlexAssays. Furthermore various cytokines and proteases were evaluated by real-time-PCR. In DCMi patients both CD3-lymphocyte infiltration (8.95fold, pP P P P P Conclusion: Myocardial inflammation in patients with DCMi leads to an imbalance in the MMP/TIMP-system, which attributes to the development of myocardial fibrosis.

Introduction: The biopsy based analyse, with histological, immunohistological and molecular biological analysis of myocardial tissues, represents the only possible tool to investigate the basement of inflammatory cardiomyopathy. Since development of this disease assume involvement of extracellular matrix remodelling, the analyze of this process were aimed in this article. Methods and results: Endomyocardial biopsies from patient with inflammatory cardiomyopathy (n=170) were analysed by RT-PCR, Furthermore, histological, immunohistological and biochemical methods (ELISA) were used to estimate the matrix proteins amount in myocardial tissues (n=36). All results were obtained by comparison of patient groups regarding to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), EF>60 versus EF60 group. The escalating number of active CD3 cells correlated positively with BNP (ρ=0.624, p Conclusion: Myocardial inflammation lead to an imbalance in the MMP/TIMP system with development of myocardial fibrosis with significant correlation to LV-dysfunction. Extracellular matrix remodeling with an imbalance in the MMP/TIMP system plays an important role in the development of left ventricular dysfunction in inflammatory heart disease