Administration of methylprednisolone suppresses the development of arteritis in a murine model of Kawasaki disease

Objective To investigate the inhibitory effect of methylprednisolone(MP) on the develo-pment of coronary arteritis in a murine model of Kawasaki disease (KD) induced with a candida albicans water-soluble fraction (CAWS). Methods Forty-five C57BL/6mice were evenly divided into three groups (the control group, the CAWS group and the MP group). Mice in the CAWS group were intraperitoneally injected phosphate buffer saline (PBS) for 5 days. MP or PBS was administered to the different group. The animals were sacrificed at day 3, day 10 and day 28, and the status of vasculitis in the coronary arteries and the aortic root was investigated histologically. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the differences among three groups, and t-test for two independent groups. Results The mice in CAWS group and MP group, which induced by CAWS, showed that the body weight and heart weight decreased significantly, and the spleen weight was increased at day 10 and day 28 (P<0.05). Vasculitis was induced in the mice of those two groups, and the severity score was the highest at day 10 (12.7±0.5). In addition, the severity of the inflammation of the aortic root and the coronary arteries were reduced in MP group (t=6.35, 5.55, 2.8, P<0.05). Elastic fiber staining showed that the layers of vascular walls were in disorder and elastic fibers were broken in the CAWS group. However, there was no disruption or breakage in the MP group. Conclusion MP can suppress the progression of coronary arteritis in this CAWS-induced murine vasculitis model, which indicates the efficacy of MP in KD patients with coronary artery lesions. Key words: Methylprednisolone; Mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome; Candida albicans; Coronary