INFECTIONS or vaccines can occasionally stimulate an autoimmune attack on the heart, reports Josef Penninger at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna in Nature Medicine (DOI: 10.1038/nm960).
The problem lies with immune cells called dendritic cells that pick up circulating proteins and tell other parts of the immune system to ignore or attack cells bearing them. Dendritic cells can trigger an autoimmune attack on the heart if they are briefly stimulated by two inflammatory chemicals released by different parts of the immune system as they mop up heart proteins, which can be freed when the muscle is damaged.…
