Heart-infiltrating and Peripheral T Cells in the Pathogenesis of Human Chagas' Disease Cardiomyopathy

Heart tissue destruction in chronic Chagas' disease cardiomyopathy (CCC), occurring in 30% of individuals chronically infected by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, may be caused by autoimmune recognition of patients' heart tissue by a T cell rich inflammatory infiltrate. Recently, our group demonstrated that T cells infiltrating the heart of CCC patients crossreactively recognize cardiac myosin heavy chain and tandemly repetitive T....