TGF-ß1 AND CORONARY INTIMAL HYPERPLASIA IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS WITH CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

GUERRI-GUTTENBERG, ROBERTO ; CASTILLA, ROCÍO; FRANCOS, GABRIELA CELESTE; MULLER, ANGÉLICA; DE MATEO, ELENA; AMBROSIO, GIUSEPPE; MILEI, JOSÉ

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY

PULSUS GROUP INC

Lugar: Ontario; Año: 2013 vol. 29 p. 849 - 857

0828-282X

Background: Congenital heart defects or the process of their repair leads to an increased risk for adult cardiovascular disease compared with thegeneral population. Intimal hyperplasia is a preatherosclerotic lesion thatmay be produced as a consequence of transforming growth factor b1(TGF-b1) pathway activation. We studied the presence of intimal hyperplasiain arteries from a pediatric population with congenital heart disease(CHD) and TGF-b1 expression to enlighten its possible role in the genesis of these lesions.Methods: Coronary arteries from 10 controls and 98 CHD patients (54% cyanotic type, 32% surgically repaired) were stained, and the presence and degree of intimal thickening were analyzed. The expression of TGF-b1 was studied by immunohistochemistry.Results: The difference between the presence of coronary intimal hyperplasia in patients with cyanotic (35; 66.1%) and noncyanotic CHD (29; 64.3%) was not significant. However, surgically repaired CHD presented a higher rate of coronary intimal hyperplasia (80%) than did the groupwithout surgical intervention (47.3%),P¼0.0002. The immunostaining for TGF-b1 analyzed in samples of patientswith cyanotic and noncyanoticCHD showed no significant differences. However, TGF-b1 expression was more intense on the intimal layer of patientswith surgically repaired CHD than on that of those without surgery (intimal area positive for TGF-b1, 50.43% vs15.91%, respectively; Mann-Whitney U test P ¼ 0.0005).