Cellular immune mechanisms in myosin-induced myocarditis.

Cardiac myosin-induced myocarditis proved to be a valuable virus-free murine model with which to investigate autoimmunological mechanisms in inflammatory heart disease. The disease was shown to be T cell-mediated. In this contribution the functional role of CD4 and CD8 molecules and the conditions that are required to make the cardiac tissue susceptible to an autoimmune attack are discussed.