Autoantibodies Targeting AT1 Receptor from Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome Upregulate Proinflammatory Cytokines Expression in Endothelial Cells Involving NF-κB Pathway

Figure 2

Chronotropic effects of angiotensin II or purified AT1-AAs from patients with acute coronary syndrome on cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Like angiotensin II (0.1 μM), AT1-AAs (20 μg/mL) increased cells beats about 22/min, and AT1 receptor blocker valsartan (1 μM) and overload AT1-EC2 peptide (1 μg/mL) could significantly inhibit this chronotropic effect demonstrating that AT1-AAs have an agonistic effect on the AT1 receptor. The nonspecific IgG (nsIgG) (20 μg/mL) was used as control; the beats were not increased as is shown. Ang II: angiotensin II, AT1-AAs: autoantibodies against the AT1 receptor; versus Ang II control group; versus AT1-AAs control group. The data were organized from 5 independent experiments each treated with one of the positive samples and repeated three times.