Soluble Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 (VCAM-1) as a Biomarker in the Mouse Model of Experimental Autoimmune Myocarditis (EAM).

Grabmaier U; Kania G; Kreiner J; Grabmeier J; Uhl A; Huber BC; Lackermair K; Herbach N; Todica A; Eriksson U; Weckbach LT; Brunner S

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158299

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Soluble Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 (VCAM-1) as a Biomarker in the Mouse Model of Experimental Autoimmune Myocarditis (EAM).

Grabmaier U Medical Department I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Kania G Research of Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, Division of Rheumatology, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Kreiner J Medical Department I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Grabmeier J Medical Department I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Uhl A Medical Department I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Huber BC Medical Department I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Lackermair K Medical Department I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Herbach N Institute of Veterinary Pathology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Todica A Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Eriksson U Cardioimmunology, Center of Molecular Cardiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Weckbach LT Medical Department I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Brunner S Medical Department I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.

2016-08-09

Published in:

PloS one. - 2016

Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1

English Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is strongly upregulated in hearts of mice with coxsackie virus-induced as well as in patients with viral infection-triggered dilated cardiomyopathy. Nevertheless, the role of its soluble form as a biomarker in inflammatory heart diseases remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated whether plasma levels of soluble VCAM-1 (sVCAM-1) directly correlated with disease activity and progression of cardiac dysfunction in the mouse model of experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM). EAM was induced by immunization of BALB/c mice with heart-specific myosin-alpha heavy chain peptide together with complete Freund`s adjuvant. ELISA revealed strong expression of cardiac VCAM-1 (cVCAM-1) throughout the course of EAM in immunized mice compared to control animals. Furthermore, sVCAM-1 was elevated in the plasma of immunized compared to control mice at acute and chronic stages of the disease. sVCAM-1 did not correlate with the degree of acute cardiac inflammation analyzed by histology or cardiac cytokine expression investigated by ELISA. Nevertheless, heart to body weight ratio correlated significantly with sVCAM-1 at chronic stages of EAM. Cardiac systolic dysfunction studied with positron emission tomography indicated a weak relationship with sVCAM-1 at the chronic stage of the disease. Our data provide evidence that plasma levels of sVCAM-1 are elevated throughout all stages of the disease but showed no strong correlation with the severity of EAM.

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