Abstract
The pathogenesis of coronary arterial inflammation in acute Kawasaki disease (KD) is unclear. To test the hypothesis that the KD vascular lesion is an activated T lymphocyte-dependent process, immunohistochemical studies were done on coronary artery aneurysms from 8 fatal acute KD cases by using antibodies to CD45RO (activated or memory T lymphocyte), CD8 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte), CD4 (helper T lymphocyte), HAM56(macrophage), and CD20 (B lymphocyte). Acute KD coronary arteritis was characterized by transmural infiltration of CD45RO T lymphocytes with CD8 T lymphocytes predominating over CD4 T lymphocytes. Macrophages were present primarily in the adventitial layer; B lymphocytes were notably absent. These data lend support to the hypotheses that KD results from infection with an intracellular pathogen, such as a virus, whose antigens are presented by major histocompatibility complex class I molecules, and that CD8 T lymphocytes and macrophages are important in the pathogenesis of KD coronary aneurysms.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 940-943 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Journal of Infectious Diseases |
| Volume | 184 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2001 |
Funding
Received 12 April 2001; revised 8 June 2001; electronically published 22 August 2001. Presented in part: annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, Baltimore, April 2001 (abstract 70). This study was approved by the Children’s Memorial Hospital institutional review board. Financial support: National Institutes of Health (HL-63771 to A.H.R.); Kawasaki Disease Research Fund of Children’s Memorial Hospital. Reprints or correspondence: Dr. Anne Rowley, Northwestern University Medical School, Pediatrics W140, Ward 12-204, 303 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611 ([email protected]).
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Infectious Diseases
- Immunology and Allergy
