Abstract
BACKGROUND: Amphiregulin (AREG) is a growth factor linked to cardioprotection and heart pathology during myocardial stress. Our aim was to investigate cardiac AREG expression, its potential as a postmortem hypothermia marker and its possible stress hormone dependency in different types of deaths. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Heart RNA was isolated from hypothermic, cardiac and non-cardiac deaths. Relative AREG mRNA levels and urine stress hormone concentrations were measured by qPCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays from eight different death cause groups. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate a cut-off point for AREG expression as a hypothermia marker. Regulatory elements were predicted by PROMO. RESULTS: The AREG mRNA levels were significantly higher in hypothermic deaths than in most cardiac and non-cardiac deaths. AREG expression indicated hypothermic deaths with nearly 70% sensitivity and specificity. However, high expression levels were also detected in non-ischaemic deaths. The highest concentrations of adrenaline and cortisol were detected in hypothermic deaths, while the highest noradrenaline concentrations associated with atherosclerotic heart disease (AHD) deaths with acute myocardial infarction and trauma deaths. There were no significant correlations between stress hormones and AREG mRNA in hypothermic and non-cardiac deaths, whereas moderate-to-high associations were detected in cardiac deaths. Putative response elements for cortisol and catecholamines were found in AREG. CONCLUSIONS: Severe hypothermia activates cardiac AREG expression practicable as a postmortem hypothermia marker. Cortisol and catecholamines may act as transcriptional modifiers of this gene, especially in long-term ischaemic heart disease. However, the exact role of these hormones in upregulation of AREG during hypothermia remains unclear.