Morphological evaluation of the E-cadherin expression in cardiomyocytes of the donor heart at diff erent terms of cold myocardial ischemia

Introduction. Heart transplantation is currently the mainstay of treatment for the end-stage chronic heart failure patients. To date, there is no consensus on the time criteria for cold ischemia of the donor heart. Despite a large number of studies, the question about the level of damage of cardiomyocyte cytoskeleton proteins at diff erent terms of cold ischemia remains unresolved; there is no clear time limit of acceptable preservation time and corresponding pathomorphological data on the state of their structure at ischemic and reperfusion damage.

Aim. An analysis of pathomorphological characteristics of cardiomyocytes and the expression of E-cadherin, protein from the family of cell adhesion molecules in the myocardium of the donor heart at diff erent terms of cold ischemia.

Materials and methods. Intraoperative biopsies of the myocardium of the left atrial appendage of donors aged up to 60 years after cold ischemia with Custodiol solution duration up to 240 min (group 1, n = 10) and over 240 min (group 2, n = 7) were used. Histological sections of the myocardium were stained according to the standard procedure with hematoxylin and eosin. Their further study was carried out by light microscopy, and to assess the E-cadherin expression immunohistochemistry was used.

Results. The assessment of cardiomyocyte pathomorphology under conditions of diff erent duration of myocardial cold ischemia revealed homogeneity and reversibility of changes in cellular structures, steady-state expression of the cell adhesion protein, E-cadherin at the sites of intercalated discs in patients of both groups.

Conclusion. The results showed that the activity of E-cadherin under cold myocardial ischemia with Custodiol solution for 240 min and over 240 min remains in steady-state, indicating the preservation its macromolecular structure and functional polarity of myocardial muscle cells.

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