Anti-inflammatory protein after myocardial infarction

Body healing after heart attacks: researchers discover anti-inflammatory protein GDF-15

03/05/2011

The healing processes after a heart attack always follow the same pattern, whereby a certain protein has a significant share in the recovery. Because the protein prevents excessive inflammatory reactions, so that a stable scar formation can be guaranteed.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Münster and the Hannover Medical School (MHH) have discovered a protein that has a regulatory effect on inflammatory processes. The protein GDF-15 ensures that after a heart attack, the inflammation that occurs in the course of the natural healing process does not become excessive and may cause damage. The scientists have their research results in the journal „Nature Medicine“ released.

Protein crucial for healing processes after heart attacks
In a heart attack, muscle tissue in the heart dies, which needs to be replaced by a stable scar in order to continue functioning of the vital organ. The researchers at the Max Planck Institute and the MHH have examined in detail how the body's own healing processes after a heart attack look in detail. They found that a particular protein plays an essential role. As blood continues to be pumped throughout the healing process, the scars in myocardial tissue are constantly under stress. Here, the inflammatory reactions occurring during healing could weaken the tissue and potentially cause life-threatening tears in the heart muscle, the researchers said. Therefore, the body immediately after a heart attack, the protein GDF-15 is formed to prevent excessive inflammatory reactions. The involved biomedicine and cardiologists were able to observe that the heart muscle cells during the healing process „Increasing GDF-15 Formation: Already after twelve hours, the concentration of this factor increased twentyfold - mainly in the infarct area“, said the spokesman for the Max Planck Institute, Dirk Hans.

Protein prevents excessive inflammatory reactions
The observed inflammatory response is a natural element of the healing process after a heart attack, the researchers report. However, for a stable scar formation overshooting inflammatory processes are urgently to be prevented, said the spokesman for the Max Planck Institute. Here the researchers discovered now „a completely new mechanism by which the body (s) prevent excessive inflammatory reactions“, stressed Dirk Hans. The inflammatory reaction is essentially triggered by white blood cells, which migrate into the site of inflammation and here „to the wall of the blood vessels“ dock, explained Dietmar Vestweber from the Max Planck Institute. For this docking to be possible, so-called integrin molecules must be activated on the surface of the white blood cells, according to the expert of the Max Planck Institute. „As a result, these molecules change their shape, they straighten up and can be used for docking to the wall of the blood vessels“, explained Vestweber.

GDF-15 prevents the attachment of white blood cells
The researchers of the MHH and the Max Planck Institute have now discovered in their investigations for the first time the mechanism that inhibits the erection of the integrins and thus their activation. Vestweber explained: „When GDF-15 binds to the white blood cells, the integrins remain inactive and the white blood cells can not dock to the blood vessel wall in the inflammatory area.“ In this way, worry „GDF-15 that the inflammatory process is regulated and does not overflow and causes damage“, the scientists explained. The researchers also found in the study on mice that without GDF-15, there is a significantly increased risk of serious health problems after a heart attack. So the mice that could not produce GDF-15 died a short time after a heart attack, as it „with them to an excessive inflammatory reaction“ came, explained Vestweber. In the case of mice without GDF-15, the body did „The dead tissue degraded too quickly, causing the heart muscle to break“, explained Kai Wollert of the MHH.

Detected protein can also be used in other diseases?
The experts from the Max Planck Institute and the MHH also found that the protein GDF-15 does not only exert an anti-inflammatory effect after a heart attack, but the same process „also in tissues outside the heart“ determine is. „This seems to be a general principle of anti-inflammatory“, emphasized Dietmar Vestweber. Thus, the protein could also be of interest in combating other diseases associated with excessive inflammatory responses, said Vestweber. In particular, in inflammations inside the body such as gastritis or renal pelvic inflammation, new drugs based on the discovered mechanism of the protein GDF-15 could significantly simplify the treatment in the future. (Fp)

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Image: Gerd Altmann / Photoshop Graphics