The Precursor Frequency Of Circulating Dendritic Cells In Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) Patients

Backgrounds:In recent years,it has been reported that atherosclerosis has some characters of autoimmune diseases.Large amounts of inflamatory cells including Dendritic cells(DCs) congregate in the atherosclerotic plaque.DCs are known as the most important specific antigen presenting cells(APC) and play a key part in autoimmune diseases.The study on the inflamatory reactions,which DCs are recruited in the origin and development of the atherosclerotic plaque and the acute thrombosis secondary to the rupture of the plaque,will lead to the new view of the mechanism and new methods and targets for diagnosis and treatment of CAD.Objective:Dendritic cell(DC) subsets,myeloid DCs(mDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs(pDCs),could regulate immune reactions by polarizing naive T-helper cells into Thl or Th2 effector cells respectively.The frequency of circulating DCs precursor of different subsets of coronary artery disease patients(CAD) and health people are studied.Methods:Circulating DC precursors and subsets were flow cytometrically detected in healthy controls(n=18),CAD patients with stable angina pectoris(SAP n=17),unstable angina pectoris(UAP n=15),acute coronary syndrome(ACS n=15) and acute myocardial infarction(AMI n=16). Peripheral-blood DCs in ACS group and AMI group were followed up one week after admission.Results:Comparing with healthy controls(mDC 0.19±0.07%, 11541±6421/mL;mDC1 0.18±0.07%,11028±6245/mL),circulating mDC and mDC1 were significantly increased in patients with UAP(mDC 0.26±0.07% p=0.02,15845±4155/mL,p=0.01;mDC1 0.25±0.07%,p=0.03,14905±3880/mL, p=0.01),and significantly decreased in ACS group(mDC 0.13±0.05%,p=0.01; mDC1 0.11±0.05%,p=0.008) and AMI group(mDC 0.06±0.05%,p＜0.001, 6218±5904/mL,p=0.003;mDC1 0.05±0.05%,p＜0.001;5302±5346/mL, p=0.002).In contrast,mDC and mDC1 were not significantly altered in SAP group.The number and the proportion of pDC precursors in peripheral circulating white cells were significantly decreased in AMI group (0.01±0.01%p＜0.001;1969±1475/mL,p=0.001) than control group.The number and the proportion of mDC,mDC1,pDC in peripheral circulation white cells were significantly increased one week after admission in ACS and AMI group(p＜0.01).According to the number of vessels involved in angiography,these patients were devided into single-vessel, double-vessel and multiple-vessel lesion groups.Circulating DCs,mDC, mDC1 trended to be reduced,not reaching statistical significance though, in patients with multiple-vessel lesions compared with healthy controls. And the proportion of pDC in peripheral circulation white cells was significantly decreased in patients with multiple-vessel lesions than in controls(p=0.03).No significant difference was found between patients with single-vessel disease or double-vessel disease with healthy controls in number of Des,mDC,and pDC.No significant correlations between DCs, mDC,and pDC number and serum hs—CRP or serum IL—6 were found.Conclusion:More mDC and mDC1 were detected in the peripheral circulation in UAP group than control group,which suggests DCs may be recruited in the enhanced rhl response in the development of CAD.The decrease in peripheral circulating mDC and mDC1 of ACS and AMI group,the decrease in pDC of AMI group and the increase of mDC,mDC1,and pDC in ACS and AMI group one week after the admission suggest that DCs may take part in the unstable and rupture process of the plaque.