Abstract
Background: Kawasaki Disease (KD) and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) are pediatric diseases characterized by systemic inflammation and vascular injury, potentially leading to coronary artery lesions (CALs). Data on vascular injury occurring during acute COVID-19 (AC19) in children are still lacking. The aim of our study was to investigate endothelial injury in KD-, MIS-C- and AC19-dosing circulating endothelial cells (CECs).
Methods: We conducted a multicenter prospective study. CECs were enumerated by CellSearch technology through the immunomagnetic capture of CD146-positive cells from whole blood.
Results: We enrolled 9 KD, 20 MIS-C and 10 AC19. During the acute stage, the AC19 and KD patients had higher CECs levels than the MIS-C patients. From the acute to subacute phase, a significant CEC increase was observed in the KD patients, while a mild decrease was detected in the MIS-C patients. Cellular clusters/syncytia were more common in the KD patients. No correlation between CECs and CALs were found in the MIS-C patients. The incidence of CALs in the KD group was too low to investigate this correlation.
Conclusions: Our study suggests a possible role of CECs as biomarkers of systemic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in KD and MIS-C and different mechanisms of vascular injury in these diseases. Further larger studies are needed.
Keywords: COVID-19; CellSearch; children; circulating endothelial cells; coronary artery lesions; endothelial injury; kawasaki disease; multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, children, Kawasaki disease, endothelial injury, circulating endothelial cells, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children., coronary artery lesions, CellSearch, 【초록키워드】 Biomarker, Diseases, pediatric, Prospective Study, MIS-C, Endothelial dysfunction, Whole blood, Patient, Mild, systemic inflammation, incidence, multicenter, correlation, disease, patients, mechanism, Endothelial cell, Inflammatory, lesion, Vascular injury, endothelial, syndrome, circulating, acute COVID-19, Cell, decrease, enrolled, conducted, characterized, 【제목키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, damage, New,