Conclusions
High-throughput polychromatic flow cytometry and HCA are capable of objective, time and cost efficient assessment of the individual T-cell immune profile in different stages of coronary heart disease and have broad applications in clinical trials.
Objective
Our goal was to investigate the role of CD4(+) T cells during myocardial reperfusion following PPCI by developing a protocol for high-throughput multiplexed flow cytometric analysis and multivariate flow clustering.
Results
13-parameter immunophenotyping and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) identified a unique CD4(+)CD57(+) T-cell population in PPCI patients that reflected acute proliferation in the CD4(+) T-cell compartment. CD4(+)CCR7(+) T cells were specifically depleted from peripheral blood during the first 30 min of myocardial reperfusion after PPCI, suggesting a potential role for the chemokine receptor CCR7 in T-cell redistribution to either peripheral tissues or migration to the infarcted heart during ischemia/reperfusion following PPCI. Conclusions: High-throughput polychromatic flow cytometry and HCA are capable of objective, time and cost efficient assessment of the individual T-cell immune profile in different stages of coronary heart disease and have broad applications in clinical trials.