Health

The role of white blood cells in heart attacks


Research builds on the knowledge that heart conditions (such as heart attack) increase the risk of VT and other abnormal heart rhythms leading to large changes in the white blood cell population around the heart.

To investigate the mechanisms involved, the MGH scientists developed a new research model. “It is not believed that rats experience VT after a heart attack, but we discovered a surprisingly simple trick to induce it,” said senior author Matthias Nahrendorf, MD, an MGH investigator. it – feed the rat a low-potassium food. Center for Systems Biology, a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and President of the Richard Moerschner-funded MGH Research Institute for Men’s Health.

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“This is an important step forward because we can now study how different white blood cell subclasses affect heart rhythm. It’s also clinically relevant because each patient’s second. years of heart attack all have low blood potassium levels, and these patients are known to be particularly likely to develop abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmias.”

The group’s experiments demonstrated that among the different types of leukocytes, neutrophils promote ventricular tachycardia (VT) while macrophages protect against it. “Inflamed neutrophils give rise to arrhythmias by affecting the electrical function of heart muscle cells called cardiomyocytes,” explains Nahrendorf.

“Macrophages, which take up debris, have a protective function, and their deletion gave rise to an electrical storm in mice with low potassium levels that experienced a heart attack. Indeed, those with low potassium levels. this rat is more likely to die from an arrhythmia.”

The findings indicate that additional research into the role of white blood cells in irregular heartbeats could lead to new targeted therapies for irregular heartbeats. This study was funded by NHLBI grants HL139598, HL142494, HL125428 and HL155097.

Source: Eurekalert



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