Ca2+ activity has been found to associate with the immunity and inflammation within cardiovascular diseases in recent years. Researchers have begun to focus on the effect of calcium channel blockers, which could modify the immunity and inflammation. This review presented the mechanism underlying the concentration and activation of Ca2+ influenced the response of immunity and inflammation and how calcium channel blockers interfered with it, which may have potential in treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Objective:To explore the effects of diltiazem on ventricular remodeling and inflammation in rat heart following acute myocardial infarction(AMI).Methods:The model of AMI rats was randomly divided into diltiazem group(D group)and control group(AMI group),besides another group of sham operation(S group).The data of ejection fraction(EF) and the left ventricular mass(LVM)were examined with echocardiography,and leukocyte infiltration in situ was analyzed on the HE staining slices,with the expression of proinflammatory cytokines(IL-I?,IL-6,TNF-?)detected by RT-PCR at 1d,3d,1w,2w and 4w intervals after AMI.Results:The results from echocardiography showed that EF increased(73.7?3.1% vs 61.0?2.6%)and LVM decreased(0.81?0.12g vs 0.92?0.12g),both significantly in D group at 4w,compared with those of the AMI group(P

Aim To research into the effect of diltiazem on cytokines expression in mononuclearcells induced by concanavalin A.Methods Ficoll density gradient centrifugation was used to separate the mononuclearcells from rat's spleen.There were 3 groups including control, Con A, diltiazem-Con A group in the study.The cytokines expressions in supernatant were detected by ELISA.Results Compared with control, IL-10, TNF-α, IL-6 were increased significantly in Con A group with low level IL-1β and non level TGF-β_1.But in diltiazem-Con A group, IL-10, TNF-α, IL-6 were decreased significantly compared with Con A group.Conclusion Diltiazem inhibits IL-10, TNF-α, IL-6 expressions in mononuclearcells induced by Con A.

Aim To explore the cardiac cytokine expression in rat model of myocardial calcium overload, and the intervention from diltiazem.Methods The intracellular Ca~(2+) overload was induced by the isolated rat heart subjected to 5 min Ca~(2+) depletion and 30 min Ca~(2+) repletion (Ca~(2+) paradox) by the Langendorff technique.There were five groups in this study, including Ca~(2+) overload group, normal control group, Ca~(2+) depletion control group, Ca~(2+) overload-diltiazem group, and Ca~(2+) depletion-diltiazem group.The views of myocardial pathology and ultrastruction were observed by electron microscope and light microscope respectively. The cardiac intracellular [Ca~(2+)]_i was detected by atom spectrophotometer. The expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, L-6, TGF-β1, and IL-10 was detected by RT-PCR method.Results In Ca~(2+) overload group, few inflammatory cells were found in myocardium under the light microscope. And the views of electron microscope presented that cardiocyte membranes, nucleolus, and mitochondria were disorganized obviously.Compared with normal control group, the inflammatory cytokines as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were increased significantly whereas there was nearly no difference of the expression of TGF-β1 and IL-10 in Ca~(2+) overload group.Ca~(2+) overload-diltiazem group showed that TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were decreased significantly. There were no statistical differences in the structure of myocardium, intracellular [Ca~(2+)]_i, and cardiac cytokines expressions in the three control groups, including normal control group, Ca~(2+) depletion control group and Ca~(2+) depletion-diltiazem group.Conclusions Instead of TGF-β1 and IL-10, the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 is increased obviously in myocardium of calcium paradox model. Diltiazem can inhibit the cardiac expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 induced by myocardial calcium overload.

Aim To research the effect of diltiazem on cytokine expression and inflammatory cell activity in rat heart with ischemia/reperfusion.Methods The rats, underwent ischemia reperfusion, were divided into three groups:diltiazem group(D group),ischemia/reperfusion group (I/R group),and sham group (Sgroup).Echocardiogram was detected at 1,2,4 weeks after operation. RT-PCR was used to detect the inflammatory cytokines as IL-1β,TNF-α, IL-6 and anti-inflammatory cytokines as IL-10,TGF-β.Results Compared with I/R group,EF were increased and LVM, IL-β,TNF-α,IL-6 reduced significantly in D group.There was no significant/difference for IL-10 and TGF-β in three groups .Conclusion Diltiazem inhibits IL-1β,TNF-α, IL-6 expressions and inflammatory cell infiltration in rat heart with ischemia reperfusion.

Objective To explore the relationship between the polymorphism of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene and essential hypertension complicated with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Methods ACE gene I/D polymorphism in 150 healthy subjects, 80 essential hypertensive(ET)patients with LVH and 152 ET patients without LVH was detected by PCR. Left ventricular mass (LVM) was measured by echocardiography, and then left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was calculated. Results The frequencies of the ACE D allele in the ET patients with or without LVH were 0.493 and 0.514, respectively, and significantly higher than those in the healthy subjects (P

Objective To explore the role of the autoantibodies against angiotensin Ⅱtype 1 receptor(AT1-receptor) and ?1-adrenergic receptor(?1-receptor)in the development of chronic glomerulonephritis(CGN) with renal failure.Methods The epitopes of the second extracellular loop of AT1 receptor(165-191),?1 receptor(192-21),M2 receptor(169-191) were synthesized and used respectively to screen sera autoantibodies from patients with chronic renal failure(n=66),hypertension without renal failure(n=58) and healthy blood donors(n=40,control) by ELISA.Results In patients of chronic glomerulonephritis with renal failure,the positive rates of the autoantibodies against AT1-receptor and ?1-receptor were 56.1% and 53.0% respectively.The positive rates were all higher than those in patients of the hypertension without renal failure(the positive rates were 15.5% and 12.1%,respectively) and in the healthy donors(10% and 12.5%,respectively)(P

Objective To study the findings of measles associated with pneumonia and to improve the diagnostic level of this disease.Methods The chest X-ray of 280 cases with pneumonia among 310 children with measles from January 2005 to August 2006 were collected and analyzed retrospectively.Results The most common findings of chest X-ray examinations included blurred and increased lung markings(in all cases),pulmonary air-sacs luminance increase and emphysema-like change in 206 cases(73.6%),spotted shadows and patches in the bilateral middle and lower field in 91 cases(32.5%),enlarged and blurred pulmonary hila in 115 cases(41.1%),interstitial appearance in 98 cases(35%),serious pneumonia and ARDS in 4 cases(1.4%).Conclusion It is valuable in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of measles accompanying pneumonia in children to analyze the chest X-ray combining with clinical situation.

Objective To investigate the effect of diuretics combined with the new class volume-removing drugs nesiritide and tolvaptan on refractory heart failure (RHF).Methods We collected 78 patients with RHF from cardiovascular ICU in our hos-pital,and patients were divided into combined volume-removing drugs treatment group (CVR group)and traditional diuretics com-bined with inotropic treatment group (control group).We observed the differences in the heart failure symptoms control rate and the average hospitalization days between the two groups.The difference in average urine volume and weight loss during hospitaliza-tion was observed.Results The heart failure symptoms were controlled and successful discharge in 89.7% of patients in CVR group,which was better than that in control group(71.8%).The corresponding rates of death or abandonment was decreased sig-nificantly in CVR group,and the average number of hospitalization days in CVR group was significantly shorter than that in control group(P <0.05).Meanwhile,the average daily urine volume and the weight loss decreased significantly in CVR group than those in control group(P <0.05).Conclusion The therapy strategy of combined volume-removing drugs can significantly improve the vol-ume removing and control rate of heart failure symptoms.

AIM: Recent studies have identified the importance of inflammation in the development and progression of heart failure.Chemokines are essential factors in the recruitment and activation of leukocytes.They are closely related with inflammation.So the relation between chemokines expression and lymphocytes recruitment and cardiac function after acute myocardial infarction(AMI) was studied.METHODS: Ligating left interventricular branch induced AMI.Experimental rats were divided into three groups: heart failure group(MI-HF),non-heart failure group(MI-NF) and sham group(sham).Sham group was made by the same procedure only without ligation.The blood dynamics of rats was examined after 3 days,1 week and 2 weeks following ligation.Rats,which had a left ventricular end-diastolic pressure(LVEDP) above 15 mmHg,were considered to be in heart failure.Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) was used to analyze the mRNA expression of chemokines,including monokine induced by IFN-?(MIG),macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha(MIP-1?) and regulated upon activation,normal T cell expressed and secreted(RANTES),in the infarcted region(circumjacent region included).The numbers of lymphocytes infiltrated in the infarcted region were also counted.RESULTS: MIP-1?,RANTES and MIG mRNA increased at 3 days and reached the peak at 1 week after AMI,significantly higher in MI-HF group than those in MI-NF group(RANTES,0.83?0.05 vs 0.51?0.19,P