Severe tricuspid regurgitation after mitral valve surgery: the risk factors and results of the aggressive application of prophylactic tricuspid valve repair.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the risk factors for severe postoperative tricuspid regurgitation (TR) in patients undergoing mitral valve surgery. We also studied the effects of prophylactic tricuspid valve repair (TVR) on severe postoperative TR.

Methods: We retrospectively studied 125 patients without severe TR who underwent mitral valve surgery from 1987 to 2006.

Microarray-based gene expression profiling of retransplanted rat cardiac allografts that develop cardiac allograft vasculopathy.

We studied the expression of 9,906 genes in retransplanted rat cardiac allografts that developed cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) with the use of DNA microarray and real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Although only a slight difference in the timing of the retransplantation induced the later development of CAV, 1,067 genes were differentially expressed in the allografts 1 day after retransplantation. Thus, the development of CAV was determined by a robust difference in gene expression soon after retransplantation, controlled by a slight difference in retransplantation timing.

Antibody deposition in rat heart which develops transplant vasculopathy in (donor x recipient) F1 environment.

Purpose: We studied the gene expression in rat cardiac allografts retransplanted into (donor x recipient) F1 animals to identify unknown or unexpected genes whose expression might contribute to the progression of transplant vasculopathy.

Methods: Gene expression was first studied using a mRNA differential display, then it was further investigated using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry.

Results: We found that the rat immunoglobulin kappa chain gene was preferentially induced in retransplanted cardiac allografts in which transplant vasculopathy was developing.

Selective chemokine and receptor gene expressions in allografts that develop transplant vasculopathy.

Background: Chemokine systems probably play a role in transplant vasculopathy; however, a comprehensive study of the expression of chemokines and their receptors in this disease has not been performed.

Methods: The expression of all the rat chemokines and chemokine receptor genes for which the nucleotide sequences are known were quantitatively monitored using the fluorescence-based real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction technique, and selected cytokine-receptor pairs were determined using immunohistochemical staining. The analysis covered the whole time course of transplant vasculopathy in 2 different graft models (cardiac and aortic grafts) with 4 different strain combinations of rats.