RESUMO
The circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in blood of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patient have been monitored in many previous studies. The number of circulating EPC increases in the blood of patients at onset of the AMI. EPC is originated from bone marrow. It performs vessel regeneration. There are many markers used for detecting EPC. Four of these markers, CD31, CD34, CD45, and CD146, were concurrently detected at the single cell level for the identification of EPC in the present preliminary study. The CD45 negative cell sorting was performed to peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) acquired from four AMI patients with a magnetic bead sorter, since, EPCs expressed CD45 negative or dim. The resultant PBMC eluents were treated with quantum-antibody conjugates for the probing four different markers of EPCs and then applied to a high-content single cell imaging cytometer using acousto-optical tunable filter (AOTF). The use of quantum dot, with narrow emission wavelength range and AOTF enabling cellular image at a particular single wavelength, is very advantageous for accurate high-content AMI diagnosis based on simultaneous monitoring of many markers. The number of EPC increased as compared with control in three of four AMI patients. In this approach, two EPC subtypes were found, CD31(+), CD34(+), CD45(-/dim), CD146(-) as early outgrowth EPCs and CD31(+), CD34(+), CD45(-/dim), CD146(+) as late outgrowth EPCs. Patient 1 had CD31(+), CD34(+), CD45(-/dim), CD146(+) cells whose percentage was 4.21% of cells. Patient 2 had 2.38% of CD31(+), CD34(+), CD45(-/dim), CD146(-) cells and patient 3 had 4.28% of CD31(+), CD34(+), CD45(-/dim), CD146(+) cells.