CD14 Serves as a Predicted Marker for Coronary Artery Lesions in Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki Disease (KD) is an acute vasculitis that commonly occurs in younger children, which can lead to coronary artery aneurysm, dilatation and other severe cardiovascular diseases. However, the mechanism of coronary artery lesions remains unclear. In this study, we detected the mRNA expression profile of KD patients in the acute and subacute stages in the coronary artery lesions group (KD-CALs) and the non-coronary artery lesions group (KD-nCALs). 62 differentially expressed genes were found in the CALs group, and the differential genes were enriched in immune-related signaling pathways, significantly in the NF-kappa B signaling pathway. CD14-mRNA was confirmed to be down-regulated in the subacute stage of KD-CALs. Moreover, the downregulation of CD14 caused a decrease in the expression of a series of downstream genes such as IκBα, A20, and A1/Bf1_1. But only the downregulation of IκBα was in sync with CD14. In conclusion, CD14-mRNA was differentially expressed in the KD-CALs group and regulated the expression of IκBα via the NF-kappa B signaling pathway, finally inducing vascular endothelial cell injury. It can be served as a predicted marker for coronary artery lesions in KD. Besides, CD14 could become a potential therapy target for KD, especially in reversing coronary artery lesions (CALs).