Lipids and atherosclerosis

Atherosclerotic vascular disease is the cause of heart attacks, stroke, aortic aneurysms, and peripheral vascular disease, which together represent the most frequent causes of death in the industrialized world. Indeed, the aging of the population and the 'westernization' of world diet is predicted to increase the impact of atherosclerosis worldwide over the next few decades despite continuing advances in plasma lipidlowering therapy (E. Braunwald, 1997). Atherosclerosis progresses in a series of stages, although some lesions at each stage may not progress further or may even regress if inciting events, such as hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, smoking, or hypertension, are controlled [1-4] (Fig. 1). The initial