AIMS/INTRODUCTION An elevated level of plasma homocysteine has long been suspected as a metabolic risk factor for the development of atherosclerotic vascular diseases in diabetes. Berberine (BBR) has several preventive effects on cardiovascular diseases. The effects of BBR on atherosclerotic plaque stability increased by homocysteine thiolactone (HTL) remain unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS The...

OBJECTIVE Although it has been reported that matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 is a major proteinase in atherosclerotic plaque lesions, there is no direct evidence of the role of MMP-2 in atherosclerotic lesion formation. In the present study we determined the role of MMP-2 in atherosclerosis plaque development using apolipoprotein E-deficient (apoE(-/-)) mice. METHODS AND RESULTS To generate ...

To the Editor-According to Campbell et al. [1] in their recent study of Chlamydia pneumoniae in coronary tissue, staining with a Chlamydia-specific monoclonal antibody detected chlamydiae in 45% of the atherectomy specimens from patients with atherosclerotic plaque. However, staining appeared only in macrophages; smooth muscle cells did not stain, a result that appears to contradict previous fi...

Atherosclerosis is a multifocal alteration of the vascular wall of medium and large arteries characterized by a local accumulation of cholesterol and non-resolving inflammation. Atherothrombotic complications are the leading cause of disability and mortality in western countries. Neovascularization in atherosclerotic lesions plays a major role in plaque growth and instability. The angiogenic pr...

Inflammation drives atherosclerotic plaque progression and rupture, and is a compelling therapeutic target. Consequently, attenuating inflammation by reducing local macrophage accumulation is an appealing approach. This can potentially be accomplished by either blocking blood monocyte recruitment to the plaque or increasing macrophage apoptosis and emigration. Because macrophage proliferation w...

Adaptive immunity is involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, but the recruitment of T and B lymphocytes to atherosclerotic lesions is not as well studied as that of monocytes. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the role of lymphocyte subsets in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and discuss chemokines and chemokine receptors involved in lymphocyte homing to athe...

Atherosclerotic plaques may rupture without warning and cause acute cardiovascular syndromes such as heart attack and stroke. It is believed that mechanical forces play an important role in plaque progression and rupture. A three-dimensional (3D) MRI-based finite-element model with multicomponent plaque structure and fluid-structure interactions (FSI) is introduced to perform mechanical analysi...

Defined angiographically, no-reflow (NR) manifests as an acute reduction in coronary flow in the absence of epicardial vessel obstruction. One candidate protein to cause coronary NR is tissue factor (TF), which is abundant in atherosclerotic plaque and a cofactor for activated plasma coagulation factor VII. Scrapings from atherosclerotic carotid arteries contained TF activity (corresponding to ...

BACKGROUND High-resolution contrast-enhanced imaging of the murine atherosclerotic vessel wall is difficult due to unpredictable flow artifacts, motion of the thin artery wall and problems with flow suppression in the presence of a circulating contrast agent. METHODS AND RESULTS We applied a 2D-FLASH retrospective-gated CINE MRI method at 9.4T to characterize atherosclerotic plaques and vesse...