High proportion of patients with end-stage heart failure regardless of aetiology demonstrates anti-cardiac antibody deposition in failing myocardium: humoral activation, a potential contributor of disease progression

Abstract

Evidence of anti-cardiac antibodies and complement activation was found in a large number of patients with end-stage cardiomyopathy regardless of the aetiology. Adenosine triphosphate synthase appears to be a new prominent antigenic stimulus; but more interestingly, the simultaneous co-existence of activated complement components suggests that this humoral mechanism may participate in disease progression.