Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the effect of cyclosporin A (CSA) intervention on the immunological mechanisms underlying coronary heart disease (CHD) and restenosis (RS) in rabbits. A total of 48 rabbits were randomly divided into normal control (N), N + CSA, CHD model, CHD + CSA, RS model and RS + CSA groups. Rabbits in the respective groups received different treatments prior to sacrifice at the end of week 12. Iliac arteries were harvested from the rabbits for morphological analysis and to determine the mRNA and protein expression levels of cluster of differentiation (CD) 40/CD40 ligand (CD40L), CD134/CD134 ligand (CD134L) and inflammatory factors, including matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1, MMP-9, vascular cell adhesion protein (VCAM)-1, interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical staining. As compared with the N group, the mRNA expression levels of MMP-9, VCAM-1 and TNF-α were significantly increased in the CHD and RS groups (P<0.05), but were significantly decreased in the groups with CSA intervention, as compared with those without CSA intervention (P<0.05). Conversely, there were no significant differences in the expression levels of MMP-1 and IL-6 among the six groups, although a decreasing trend of IL-6 expression was observed following intervention with CSA. Furthermore, there were significant differences in the mRNA and protein expression levels of CD40/CD40L and CD134/CD134L among the N, CHD and RS groups (P<0.05), and between the groups with and without CSA intervention. The present study demonstrated that CSA intervention exerted beneficial effects on CHD and RS, and further studies are required to investigate the mechanisms underlying the effects of CSA on CHD.