BACKGROUND With consideration of the central role of the innate immune system in atherogenesis and mannose-binding lectin (MBL) as an innate regulator of immunity, the role of MBL in experimental and human atherosclerosis was assessed. METHODS AND RESULTS With the use of immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction, deposition and gene expression of MBL-A and -C were assessed in murine ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Lacunar infarcts are small deep infarcts resulting from an occlusion of a perforating artery, and account for about a quarter of all ischemic strokes. Some new investigations indicate that subcortical lacunar lesions may have a greater chance of causing a progressive cerebral stroke than deep lacunar lesions in future. The goal of this study was to determine the frequency...

To our knowledge, the utility of coronary covered stents in the treatment of atherosclerotic carotid artery stenosis has not been defined in the English-language literature. Covered stents may prevent microembolic complications in select atherosclerotic carotid lesions, as they exclude the atherosclerotic lesion from the circulation by pressing the plaque against the vessel wall. Our early clin...

To identify genes potentially implicated in atherogenesis, a cDNA library was constructed from human atherosclerotic aorta and differentially screened with 32P-labeled-cDNAs prepared from human normal and atherosclerotic aortas. Two cDNA clones exhibiting higher hybridization to the 32P-labeled cDNAs from atherosclerotic vessels were isolated and identified to be genes encoding L-ferritin and H...

While the exact mechanisms that initiate atherosclerotic lesions are unknown, considerable evidence supports a role for low density lipoprotein (LDL). We investigated whether in the normal rabbit, LDL metabolism in areas of aorta that are destined to become lesioned during cholesterol feeding differed from the metabolism in adjacent lesion-resistant aorta. These studies took advantage of the pr...

PURPOSE Smoking is a well known risk factor for stroke. The cerebral arteries may be uniquely susceptible to the atherosclerotic effects of smoking, such that it has a different risk profile for stroke compared with other atherosclerosis risk factors. It remains uncertain whether smoking is associated specifically with intracranial (IC) or extracranial (EC) atherosclerotic cerebrovascular disea...

BACKGROUND Modification or stabilization of atherosclerotic plaques has been proposed as the mechanism responsible for the beneficial clinical effect of lipid-lowering therapies. An imaging modality able to quantify atherosclerotic plaque composition could potentially allow not only the identification of these vulnerable atherosclerotic lesions, but also monitoring of the effects of therapeutic...

Background and Purpose: There is substantial clinical, pathological, and experimental evidence that hypertension aggravates atherosclerosis of the extracranial vessels. The present study assesses the effects of hypertension on the development of cerebral atherosclerosis in nonhuman primates fed an atherogenic diet. Methods: The extent and severity of cerebral atherosclerosis were evaluated morp...

Background. T cell mediated inflammation contributes to atherogenesis and the onset of acute cardiovascular disease. Effector T cell functions are under a tight control of a specialized T cell subset, regulatory T cells (Treg). At present, nothing is known about the in situ presence of Treg in human atherosclerotic tissue. In the present study we investigated the frequency of naturally occurrin...

BACKGROUND T cell mediated inflammation contributes to atherogenesis and the onset of acute cardiovascular disease. Effector T cell functions are under a tight control of a specialized T cell subset, regulatory T cells (Treg). At present, nothing is known about the in situ presence of Treg in human atherosclerotic tissue. In the present study we investigated the frequency of naturally occurring...