Expression of High Mobility Group Protein B1 in Cardiac Tissue of Elderly Patients with Coronary Artery Disease with or without Inflammatory Rheumatic Disease

Background: It is known from clinical practice and observational studies that elderly patients with a diagnosis of inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD) bear a significantly increased risk for cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure. The molecular mechanism, however, is still not known. Recently, high mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1), a ubiquitous, highly conserved single polypeptide expressed in all mammal eukaryotic cells, has been identified to mediate myocardial dysfunction in vitro once released from the nuclei of cardiomyocytes.

Objective: To investigate whether HMGB1 and its receptors are expressed in cardiac muscles of elderly patients with CAD with or without IRD.

Methods: HMGB1 and its 3 well-known receptors, receptor for advanced glycation end products, Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), and TLR4, were examined by immunohistochemistry on myocardial biopsy specimens from 18 elderly patients with CAD (10 with IRD, 8 without IRD). Furthermore, total HMGB1 protein levels were measured by Western blot from the cardiac biopsies in 5 patients with and 5 without IRD.

Results: Pathologic cytosolic HMGB1 in cardiomyocytes was massively recorded in all patients with IRD, but only slightly expressed in 1 patient without IRD. Total HMGB1 levels were also consistently lower in myocardial muscle biopsies of patients with IRD compared to those without IRD. Furthermore, all 3 HMGB1 receptors were expressed in cardiomyocytes of all patients.

Conclusion: The increased cytosolic expression of HMGB1 in cardiomyocytes and the lower total amount of HMGB1 in the cardiac specimens of IRD patients is consistent with a greater release of HMGB1 from the myocardial nuclei in IRD than non-IRD individuals. Thus, the HMGB1 signaling pathways may be more easily activated in elderly CAD patients with concomitant IRD and trigger a detrimental inflammatory process causing severe cardiovascular problems. Therefore, targeting HMGB1 in IRD patients might reduce the risk for cardiovascular events.