JTCS Sign the Guestbook
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Personal Folders
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Permission Requests
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ruppert, V.
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Ruppert, V.
Related Collections
Right arrow Molecular biology

J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2008;136:360-369
© 2008 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Cardiopulmonary Support and Physiology

Gene expression profiling from endomyocardial biopsy tissue allows distinction between subentities of dilated cardiomyopathy

Volker Ruppert, MDa, Thomas Meyer, MDa,*, Sabine Pankuweit, PhDa, Eva Möller, PhDb, Reinhard C. Funck, MD, PhDa, Wolfram Grimm, PhDa, Bernhard Maisch, MDa German Heart Failure Network

a Department of Cardiology, University of Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, Marburg, Germany
b SIRS-Lab GmbH, Jena, Germany

Received for publication December 17, 2007; revisions received February 13, 2008; accepted for publication March 13, 2008.

* Address for reprints: Prof Thomas Meyer, Department of Cardiology, University of Marburg, Baldingerstrasse 1, 35043 Marburg/Lahn, Germany. (Email: meyert{at}med.uni-marburg.de).

Objective: Expression profile analysis using endomyocardial biopsy specimens from patients with cardiomyopathies promises to improve the differential diagnosis of heart failure.

Methods: In this study, left ventricular endomyocardial biopsy specimens were obtained from 50 patients and histopathologically classified according to the World Heart Federation Task Force criteria as having dilated cardiomyopathy (n = 17), inflammatory cardiomyopathy (n = 11), myocarditis (n = 15), or pericarditis (n = 7). Microarrays were performed by hybridization of synthesized complementary DNA against a Lab-Arraytor60-combi microarray (SIRS-Lab, Jena, Switzerland). Differentially expressed genes were clustered hierarchically according to their variation in hybridization signals.

Results: In samples from patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, two different types of gene expression profiles were distinguishable. One pattern was unique for dilated cardiomyopathy and inflammatory cardiomyopathy, respectively, and the other more closely resembled that seen in samples from inflammatory heart disease. Additionally, we confirmed the microarray data by showing that dilated cardiomyopathy is associated with a reduced myocardial toll-like receptor 9 expression that resulted from progressive loss of functional cardiomyocytes. Taken together, our data demonstrate the utility and validity of microarrays from endomyocardial biopsy specimens in detecting subentities of dilated cardiomyopathy that do not differ histopathologically, but transcriptionally, from each other. The gene expression profile observed in one subgroup of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy is indicative of ongoing immune activation, albeit infiltrating immunocompetent cells were not detected histopathologically.

Conclusion: Thus, our transcriptional data indicate that dilated cardiomyopathy constitutes a heterogeneous disease with an broad overlap to inflammatory heart disease.

Abbreviations and Acronyms cDNA = complementary DNA; DCM = dilated cardiomyopathy; DCMi = dilated cardiomyopathy with inflammation; LV = left ventricular; mRNA = messenger RNA; RT-PCR = reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; TLR9 = toll-like receptor 9






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
ANN THORAC SURG ASIAN CARDIOVASC THORAC ANN EUR J CARDIOTHORAC SURG
J THORAC CARDIOVASC SURG ICVTS ALL CTSNet JOURNALS
Copyright © 2008 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery.