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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 287/3/H1115    most recent 00075.2004v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (31) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Miller, V. M. Articles by Lieske, J. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Miller, V. M. Articles by Lieske, J. C.

Evidence of nanobacterial-like structures in calcified human arteries and cardiac valves

Departments of ¹Surgery, ²Physiology and Bioengineering, ³Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, ⁴Clinical Microbiology, and ⁵Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905; and ⁶Heart Hospital of Austin and ⁷Department of Geological Sciences, The University Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712

Submitted 28 January 2004 ; accepted in final form 11 May 2004

Mechanisms mediating vascular calcification remain incompletely understood. Nanometer scale objects hypothesized to be a type of bacteria (nanobacteria) are associated with calcified geological specimens, human kidney stones, and psammona bodies in ovarian cancer. Experiments were designed to evaluate human vascular tissue for the presence of similar nanometer-scale objects. Calcified human aneurysms (n = 8), carotid plaques (n = 2), femoral arterial plaques (n = 2), and cardiac valves (n = 2) and noncalcified aneurysms from patients with bicuspid aortic valve disease (n = 2) were collected as surgical waste from the Heart Hospital of Austin, Austin, Texas, and Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Whole mounts or adjacent sections from each specimen were examined by electron microscopy, stained for calcium phosphate, or stained with a commercially available antibody (8D10). Filtered (0.2 µm) homogenates of aneurysms were cultured and costained with 8D10 antibody followed by PicoGreen to detect DNA or incubated with [³H]uridine. Staining for calcium phosphate was heterogeneously distributed within all calcified tissues. Immunological staining with 8D10 was also heterogeneously distributed in areas with and without calcium phosphate. Analysis of areas with positive immunostaining identified spheres ranging in size from 30 to 100 nm with a spectral pattern of calcium and phosphorus (high-energy dispersive spectroscopy). Nanosized particles cultured from calcified but not from noncalcified aneurysms were recognized by a DNA-specific dye and incorporated radiolabeled uridine, and, after decalcification, they appeared via electron microscopy to contain cell walls. Therefore, nanometer-scale particles similar to those described as nanobacteria isolated from geological specimens and human kidney stones can be visualized in and cultured from calcified human cardiovascular tissue.

aneurysm; chlamydia; infection; inflammation; nanobacteria

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