Fig. 7. Sera from sepsis and acute myocardial infarction patients inhibit endothelial cell proliferation, an effect neutralized by DNase I, anti-histone antibodies, and SPAs.

a Proliferation of HMEC-1, as measured by ³H-thymidine incorporation, to detect the anti-proliferative activity of histones, which is histone concentration dependent (left panel, n = 3), but is totally neutralized by mCBS and MTS (right panel, n = 3). b Correlation (Spearman’s r value) of APACHE II scores with anti-proliferative effect of sepsis patients sera on HMEC-1 (n = 20 patients). c Correlation of APACHE II scores with extracellular DNA content of sepsis patient’s sera, with serum from patient 5 (red circle) having greatest anti-proliferative activity (b) and DNA content (c). d Effect of DNase I or pAbs against histone 3 (αH3 10 μg ml⁻¹) and histone 4 (αH4 10 μg ml⁻¹) (n = 4/treatment) on anti-proliferative effect of serum from sepsis patient 5. e Ability of SPAs CBS and MTS to neutralize the anti-proliferative effect of sepsis patient sera (SS) (n = 10 patients). f Extracellular DNA content of occlusion site sera from STEMI patients (n = 12) and stratified according to low (<35 µmol l⁻¹, n = 4) and high (>35 µmol l⁻¹, n = 8) troponin I (Trop) levels. Control sera (n = 3) from the peripheral blood of healthy volunteers. g Ability of SPAs CBS and MTS to neutralize the HMEC-1 anti-proliferative effect of sera from high troponin I STEMI patients (CS) (n = 7 patients). Data are presented as mean ± s.e.m. and analyzed by one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s correction for multiple comparisons. Source data are provided as a Source Data File.