(Circulation. 1999;99:2757-2764.)
© 1999 American Heart Association, Inc.
Clinical Investigation and Reports |
From the Second Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Oriental Medicine (K.F.), Gifu University School of Medicine, Gifu; and the Department of Food Science (T.F.), Kyoto Women's University, Kyoto, Japan.
Correspondence to Hisayoshi Fujiwara, MD, Second Department of Internal Medicine, Gifu University School of Medicine, 40 Tsukasa-Machi, Gifu 500-8705, Japan. E-mail gifuim-gif{at}umin.u-tokyo.ac.jp
BackgroundThe presence of apoptotic myocytes has been reported in human hearts with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) on the basis of a positive finding of DNA in situ nick end-labeling (TUNEL). However, ultrastructural evidence of myocyte apoptosis has not been obtained.
Methods and ResultsA total of 80 endomyocardial biopsies were obtained from right and left ventricles of 20 patients with DCM and 20 normal control subjects. TUNEL-positive myocytes were found by light microscope in 15% of DCM specimens (controls, 0%, P<0.05), and the percentage of TUNEL-positive myocytes per section in DCM was 1.0±2.7% (mean±SD). According to TUNEL at the electron microscopic level (EM-TUNEL), immunogold particles, which label DNA breaks with 3'-OH terminals, were markedly accumulated in the bizarre-shaped nuclei, with widespread clumping of chromatin (so-called "hypertrophied nuclei") of the myocytes obtained from DCM. Their ultrastructure was neither apoptotic nor necrotic but rather that of living cells. Taq polymerasebased DNA in situ ligation assay, which detects double-stranded DNA fragments more specifically than TUNEL, did not detect a positive reaction in any case. In mirror sections, all of the TUNEL-positive myocytes in DCM simultaneously expressed proliferating cell nuclear antigen, which is required for both DNA replication and repair, but Ki-67, a replication-associated antigen, was completely negative in all cases, which appeared to rule out cell proliferation activity.
ConclusionsMost of the TUNEL-positive myocytes in hearts with DCM are not apoptotic but rather living cells with increasing activity of DNA repair.
Key Words: apoptosis cardiomyopathy cells immunohistochemistry
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