Elevated tumor necrosis factor alpha of blood mononuclear cells in patients with congestive heart failure

To study the changes of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) produced by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), we determined the TNF-α concentrations of plasma and culture supernatant of PBMCs in 113 patients with various heart diseases. The results showed that plasma levels of TNF-α were significantly higher in CHF patients (n=50, 13.36±6.09 pg/ml) and in cachetic CHF patients (n=26, 19.20±10.42 pg/ml) than in the controls (n=37, 6.73±3.91 ng/ml). The supernatant levels of TNF-α in cultured PBMC (PBMC-TNF-α) were also significantly elevated in CHF patients (5.77±2.11 ng/ml), and even higher in cachetic CHF patients (7.01±5.11 ng/ml), as compared with the controls (2.27±2.24 ng/ml). There was a significant correlation between levels of PBMC-TNF-α and severity of heart failure (r=0.48, P<0.01). But no correlation between PBMC-TNF-α and plasma TNF-α was observed. These results demonstrate that the expression of TNF-α in PBMC is increased in patients with CHF, especially in patients with CHF accompanied by cachexia, suggesting that PBMC-TNF-α may be a potential biochemical indicator to evaluate the patients with CHF.