NK cell compartment in patients with coronary heart disease.
BACKGROUND
Viral and bacterial infections have been considered as a risk factor for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). NK cells, as a first line of defense against those infections, may play a role in CHD development. Thus, the main aim of our study was to determine NK cell compartment in patients with CHD undergoing coronary artery by-pass grafting.


RESULTS
Ninety three patients with CHD were included into the study; the control group consisted of 49 healthy volunteers. As compared to controls, CHD patients had lower NK cytotoxic activity. CHD group had also a decreased absolute number and percentage of total NK cells and CD3-CD56dim cytotoxic NK subset. In addition, we observed tendency toward lower percentage of the CD3-CD56bright regulatory NK subset and CD3-CD56+IFN-gamma+ cells in CHD patients.


CONCLUSIONS
These data indicate that CHD is associated with an impairment of NK cells compartment.
Hak
Łukasz
Ł
Department of Histology and Immunology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Myśliwska
Jolanta
J
Department of Histology and Immunology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Więckiewicz
Joanna
J
Department of Histology and Immunology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Szyndler
Krzysztof
K
Academic Clinic of Cardiosurgery, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Trzonkowski
Piotr
P
Department of Histology and Immunology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Siebert
Janusz
J
Department of Family Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Myśliwski
Andrzej
A
Department of Histology and Immunology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.