Cell-mediated immune responsiveness to cardiac extracts by peripheral blood leukocytes from patients after myocardial infarction or open-heart surgery.

A microdroplet in vitro procedure measuring migration inhibition was utilized to assess cell-mediated immune reactions by peripheral blood leukocytes from patients after myocardial infarction or cardiac surgery. The antigen preparations were derived from human cardiac tissue. Whereas whole-cell extracts and human myoglobin preparations had little effect on migration, mitochondrial preparations markedly inhibited the migration of blood leukocytes from a majority of the patients. Inhibition of migration appeared to reflect development of cell-mediated immunity to heart antigens after myocardial infarction or surgery. These results extend observations of anticardiac immune development in patients following cardiac injury. Two patients demonstrated a direct relationship between enhanced migration inhibition and clinical disease. It is likely that autoreactive responses to cardiac tissue may be involved and influence subsequent physiological events following initial cardiac infarction or surgery.