Clinical significance of Cx43 expression of myocardium from patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and family history of sudden death

AIM To preliminarily investigate the mechanisms underlying sudden death (SD) of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) through analysis of the expression of Cx43 and TGFβ-1 in myocardium from patients with HCM and family history of sudden death (FHSD). METHODSSamples included five patients with HCM and FHSD, five patients with HCM and non-FHSD (NFHSD) and five patients with non-HCM (NHCM). Western blot and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression of Cx43 and TGFβ-1. RESULTSFor Western blot, expression of Cx43 in the FHSD and NFHSD group was much higher than in the NHCM group (P<0.01), and Cx43 in the NFHSD group was higher than in the FHSD group (P<0.05). However, expression of TGF-β1 in FHSD and NFHSD group was much lower than in the NHCM group (P<0.01), but there was no statistical significance between NFHSD and FHSD group. For immunohistochemistry, the findings were similar to Western blot. CONCLUSIONChanges of Cx43 in myocardium may be one of the causes leading to sudden death of HCM and TGF-β1 may mediate the changes of Cx43 in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.