Truncated monocyte chemoattractant protein‐1 can alleviate cardiac injury in mice with viral myocarditis via infiltration of mononuclear cells

BALB/c mice inoculated intraperitoneally with coxsackievirus group B type 3 (CVB3) were allocated to five groups; namely, a viral myocarditis group infected with CVB3 alone (control group), an antibody intervention group that received intracardiac anti-MCP-1, an antibody intervention control group that received goat IgG, a tMCP-1 intervention group that received plasmid pVMt expressing tMCP-1, and a tMCP-1 intervention control group that received plasmid pVAX1. There was also a normal control group. The ratio of murine heart weight to body weight, pathological score of myocardial tissue, serum creatine kinase-MB titers and CVB3 loading of myocardial tissue were assessed. The cardiac lesions in mice that received 20, 40 or 60 µg pVMt (P  0.05). There was also no difference between mice that received anti-MCP-1 antibody and those that received 40 µg pVMt in ratio of HW/BW, serum CK-MB titers and pathological score (P > 0.05). This study showed that tMCP-1 can alleviate cardiac lesions and cardiac injury in mice with viral myocarditis via infiltration of mononuclear cells. Thus, tMCP-1 may be an alternative to anti-MCP-1 antibody treatment of viral myocarditis. Further research is required.