Abstract
Background: Coronary sequelae that persist after Kawasaki disease (KD) have been associated with coronary vascular events in adolescents and young adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between coronary sequelae late after KD and circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), as a marker of vascular repair, or monocyte subsets as a marker of inflammation. Methods and Results: The 31 KD patients were divided into 3 groups according to the type of coronary artery lesion (CAL): group 1 consisted of 14 patients with persistent aneurysm; group 2 consisted of 9 patients with regressed aneurysms; group 3 included 8 KD patients with normal coronary arteries from disease onset. The control group (group 4) consisted of 10 healthy subjects. Flow cytometric analysis was used to quantify circulating EPCs defined as CD34+KDR+ cells and 2 distinct monocyte subsets (CD14+CD16+ and CD14+CD16-). The number of EPCs in group 1 and group 2 was significantly decreased compared with group 4. In contrast, neither the number of CD14+CD16+ monocytes nor that of CD14+CD16- monocytes was significantly different among the 4 groups. Finally, there were not any significant relationship between the numbers of EPCs and the 2 monocyte subsets. Conclusions: There are lower numbers of EPCs in the chronic phase of KD, irrespective of both CAL formation and monocyte subsets. (Circ J 2010; 74: 2720-2725)
