RESUMO
The rapid proliferation of cardiomyocytes in mammals occurs during fetal life. But in postnatal life, this capacity of proliferation is reduced or lost as they exit the cell cycle. However, the cardiomyocytes don't show the same activity for different species. In human fetuses or in adult life, the capacity of the proliferation of cardiomyocytes and their response to an injury are not understood yet. In this study, we have done an immunohistochemical study using phospho-histone H3 (PHH3) to observe human fetal cardiomyocytes' proliferative activity. The heart specimens from the fetal autopsy of spontaneously aborted and stillborn human fetuses were subjected to immunohistochemical study using PHH3 antibody, and comparison between the PHH3 index (number of PHH3 positive cells per 1000 number of cardiomyocytes/high power field [HPF]) of myocardial regions was done using appropriate statistical tests. A total of 17 fetal hearts were included in our study. In the left ventricle, right ventricle, right atrium, and interventricular septum, the PHH3 index of myocardium was significantly higher over the pericardial region (p-value 0.002, p-value <0.001, <0.001, and 0.009 respectively) as compared to the region of over the endocardium and the middle part of the myocardium. The PHH3 index of the pericardial region of the left ventricle was significantly correlated with the maximum thickness of the left ventricle.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Rheumatic fever and RHD constitutes an important public health problem in India. The relatively low attack rate of RF, the high concordance rate for RF in monozygotic twins (19%) compared to dizygotic twins (2.5%), and the high familial incidence of RF suggest the involvement of host genetic factors in susceptibility to RF with consequential progression to RHD. OBJECTIVE: To study the association of HLA CLASS II DR/DQ alleles in children and adolescents with RHD from a tertiary care center in North India. METHODS: 30 RHD patients and 30 age and sex-matched controls were included in our study and blood samples for HLA typing were processed through LAB Type™ reverse SSO DNA typing method. The assignment of the HLA typing was based on a comparison with already published HLA gene sequences. RESULTS: The mean age of RHD patients and matched control groups were 12.97 ± 2.95 and 11.93 ± 3.23, respectively. In the cases and control group, males accounted for 63.3% and 50% of the patients respectively. A significant difference was found between the cases and controls for HLA DR∗ 15 (p-value 0.002), HLA DR∗ B4 (p-value 0.045), HLA DR∗ B5 (p-value 0.017), and HLA DQB1∗ 02 (p-value 0.005). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that HLA class II haplotypes may provide insight into the molecular mechanism of RHD and be a useful tool in predicting the clinical outcome in RF patients, thereby affording new means of intervention or vaccine design. Larger studies are needed to address this in our population.
