The new specific therapy for myocarditis with ghrelin

方法：免疫雄性Lewis大鼠，建立自身免疫性心肌炎模型。从第一次肌球蛋白注射后的3周开始，给予Ghrelin或赋形剂治疗3周。第一次免疫6周后，通过超声心动图、血流动力学、病理学和心肌基因表达来评估心肌炎的严重程度。Ghrelin可改善恶化的左室短轴缩短率和左心室扩大。在一项血流动力学研究中，服用Ghrelin的大鼠左室舒张末压显著降低。Ghrelin显著抑制左室壁形态计量型胶原体积分数的增加。有趣的是，Ghrelin治疗降低了心肌炎大鼠心脏干扰素-γ和白介素2的基因表达，增加了白介素4和白介素10的基因表达。总之，给予Ghrelin可能通过调节辅助性T细胞的激活来改善心肌炎大鼠的左心功能。

Methods: Male Lewis rats were immunized and autoimmune myocarditis was induced. From the 3 weeks after the first myosin injection, ghrelin or vehicle were administered for 3 weeks. Six weeks after the first immunization, the severity of myocarditis was evaluated by echocardiography, hemodynamics, pathology, and gene expressions in myocardium. Ghrelin improved the deteriorated left ventricular (LV) fractional shortening and LV enlargement. In a hemodynamic study, there was a substantial decrease in LV end-diastolic pressure in ghrelin-treated rats. Ghrelin markedly attenuated an increase in morphometrical collagen volume fraction in LV. Interestingly, the treatment of ghrelin decreased the mRNA expression of interferon -gamma and interleukin (IL) -2 and increased the mRNA expression of IL-4 and IL-10 in the heart of rats with myocarditis. In conclusion, administration of ghrelin improved LV dysfunction in rats with myocarditis probably via the modulation of helper T cell activation.