Senile Cardiac Amyloidosis: Evidence of Two Different Amyloid Substances in the Ageing Heart

Abstract

Lymphocytes were eluted from the synovial tissue of seventeen patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and one with ankylosing spondylitis. In eight of these patients immunoglobulin production by synovial lymphocytes in the presence and absence of pokeweed mitogen was studied. In nine patients T lymphocytes were isolated from the eluted cells, and the T helper and suppressor cell functions were evaluated in an allogeneic co-culture system. Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from twenty-eight normal donors were also studied for comparison. Immunoglobulin produced by synovial lymphocytes was higher than in PBL of normal donors. However, the stimulation index of synovial tissue lymphocytes was lower. Most of the normal donors had suppressor cell activity in their peripheral blood, whereas in synovial tissue lymphocytes a statistically significant number of patients did not have any suppressor cell activity. In contrast, the synovial tissue lymphocytes showed helper activity not differing significantly from that of the T lymphocytes from peripheral blood of normal individuals.

The heart in Portuguese amyloidosis

“…This discrepancy is unlikely to be related to the type ofamyloid. It was recently found that cardiac senile amyloidosis (Westermark et al, 1979), the hereditary amyloid heart disease described by Frederiksen et al (1962), and hereditary polyneuropathic amyloidosis (Olofsson, 1982;Eriksson, 1984) all with marked cardiac impairment are, like AFp, related to prealbumin. David et al (1984) studied the hearts of 11 patients with amyloidosis, 4 of which had AFp, 5 reactive amyloidosis and 2 myeloma.…”

The Role of Different Subsets of Regulatory T Cells in Immunopathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…In 1979, Chattopadhyay et al reported that most of the normal donors had suppressor cell activity in their peripheral blood, whereas a statistically significant number of patients did not have any suppressor cell activity in synovial tissue lymphocytes [125]. …”

The age related amyloids: a growing family of unique biochemical substances.

“…IAA is one of the most prevalent types of senile amyloidosis and has been found in about 80% of non-selected necropsy cases over 80 years of age."' 34 The atrial amyloid deposits are usually small and tend to coat muscle cells. On electron microscopy, a close relation between the amyloid fibrils and cell membranes of muscle cells is seen, and apparent intracellular amyloid fibrils have been identified.…”