PNNL

Abstract

Emerging evidence now supports the notion that persistent microvascular obstruction (PMO) may be more predictive of major adverse cardiovascular events than MI size itself. But, how PMO, a phenomenon limited to the acute/sub-acute period of MI, imparts adverse remodeling throughout the post MI period, particularly after its resolution, is incompletely understood. We hypothesized that PMOs resolve into chronic iron crystals within MI territories and actively impart a proinflammatory burden and adverse remodeling of infarction and LV in the chronic phase of MI. Canine models reperfused (n=20) and non-reperfused (n=20) with and without PMO were studied with serial cardiac MRI to characterize the spatiotemporal relationships between PMO, iron deposition, and infarct and LV remodeling indices between acute (day 7, post MI) and chronic (week 8, post MI). Histopathology and immunohistochemistry were used to validate the iron deposition, microscopically map and quantify the relationship between iron-rich chronic MI regions against pro-inflammatory macrophages, proinflammatory cytokines and matrix metalloproteinase. Atomic resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to determine the crystallinity of iron and assess the physical effects of iron on lysosomes within macrophages, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to identify the chemical composition of the iron composite. Results showed that PMOs lead to iron deposition within chronic MI and that the extent of chronic iron deposition is strongly related to PMO Volume (r>0.6, p0.7, p0.5, p0.5, p