Allograft Inflammatory Factor-1 Links T-Cell Activation, Interferon Response, and Macrophage Activation in Chronic Kawasaki Disease Arteritis.

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is widely viewed as an acute arteritis. However, our pathologic studies show that chronic coronary arteritis can persist long after disease onset and is closely linked with arterial stenosis. Transcriptome profiling of acute KD arteritis tissues revealed upregulation of T lymphocyte, type I interferon, and allograft inflammatory factor-1 (AIF1) genes.

The transcriptional profile of coronary arteritis in Kawasaki disease.

Background: Kawasaki Disease (KD) can cause potentially life-threatening coronary arteritis in young children, and has a likely infectious etiology. Transcriptome profiling is a powerful approach to investigate gene expression in diseased tissues. RNA sequencing of KD coronary arteries could elucidate the etiology and the host response, with the potential to improve KD diagnosis and/or treatment.

A study of cardiovascular miRNA biomarkers for Kawasaki disease.

We hypothesized that cardiovascular miRNAs might be diagnostic biomarkers for Kawasaki disease (KD). We identified dysregulated miRNAs in KD coronary arteries, and tested sera from KD patients and febrile controls for cardiovascular miRNAs using 2 methods. We did not identify cardiovascular miRNAs diagnostic for KD; our results may help guide future studies of potential miRNA biomarkers for KD.