Background: Viral and bacterial infections have been considered as a risk factor for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). NK cells, as a first line of defense against those infections, may play a role in CHD development. Thus, the main aim of our study was to determine NK cell compartment in patients with CHD undergoing coronary artery by-pass grafting.

Results: Ninety three patients with CHD were included into the study; the control group consisted of 49 healthy volunteers. As compared to controls, CHD patients had lower NK cytotoxic activity. CHD group had also a decreased absolute number and percentage of total NK cells and CD3-CD56dim cytotoxic NK subset. In addition, we observed tendency toward lower percentage of the CD3-CD56bright regulatory NK subset and CD3-CD56+IFN-gamma+ cells in CHD patients.

Conclusion: These data indicate that CHD is associated with an impairment of NK cells compartment.