Objective: to observe the alteration of T helper cells 17(Th17) in mice with acute viral myocarditis (VMC) induced by coxsackie virus B3 (CVB3), explore the role of Th17 in mice VMC.
Methods: CVB3 or PBS was peritoneally injected to Balb/c male mice. Pathological scores were determined in hematoxylin-eosin stained sections and flow cytometric analysis was used to evaluate the frequencies of Th17 subsets in CD4(+) T cells on 7, 14, 21, 28 and 42 days after virus injection.
Results: there were significant difference of the pathological scores between the VMC mice and the control ones (P < 0.05). The pathological scores of 7 d VMC subgroup were higher (1.8 ± 0.5) than those of 0 d VMC subgroup, and the scores of 14 d subgroup were highest (2.8 ± 0.4) among the six subgroup of VMC mice, and then showed a decline tendency from 21 d group. Statistical difference of the proportion of Th17 cells were seen between the VMC and controls on different time points (P < 0.05). When compared with the 0 d VMC subgroup the proportion of spleen Th17 cells increased in 7 d VMC subgroup [(2.23 ± 0.89)%], and peaked on 28 d [(5.00 ± 0.81)%]. The results of Th17 proportion were lower than those of the 28 d subgroup.
Conclusions: our data show that differentiated Th17 cells might be involved in the inflammation process of CVB3 induced VMC in mice.