Background: Patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) are known to have a low incidence of cardiovascular events. However, the extent of arteriosclerosis in CLD has not been studied well. Aims: To assess arteriosclerosis in CLD, and to assess and examine vascular endothelial function. Methods: The subjects were 17 patients with chronic hepatitis (CH), 48 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), and ...

The one disease associated with the greatest morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries is coronary heart disease (CHD). High density lipoprotein (HDL) is one of the most important independent protective factors for the arteriosclerosis which underlies CHD. Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) is an enzyme that confers antioxidant properties to HDL. In vitro, PON1 hydrolyzes a large variety of endogen...

The relevance of hyperlipidemia in allograft arteriosclerosis (chronic rejection) is controversial. Isolated hypercholesterolemia induced with cholesterol-cholic acid-diet (CC-diet) or hypertriglyceridemia induced with glycerol-diet (G-diet) had no or only a protective effect on aortic allograft arteriosclerosis in the rat. Combined hyperlipidemia with both diets (CC+G-diet) enhanced allograft ...

BACKGROUND Angiopoietin (Ang)-1 is an angiogenic growth factor that counteracts the permeability and proinflammatory effects of vascular endothelial growth factor and other proinflammatory cytokines. Recently, we demonstrated that vascular endothelial growth factor enhances cardiac allograft arteriosclerosis. Here, we studied the roles of Ang1, its natural antagonist Ang2, and their receptor Ti...

The immunosuppressant cyclosporin has been suggested to aggravate as well as retard the development of transplant arteriosclerosis, the major long-term problem for patients with heart transplants. We examined the effect of human therapeutic levels of blood cyclosporin on the development of experimental transplant arteriosclerosis. The thoracic aorta from one rabbit was transplanted as an end-to...

Duff and his contributions to the pathology of arteriosclerosis have been honored by men who have continued to advance the frontiers of science in these same areas. Still, a man who would so influence others that a society of peers would be set up (the Society of Arteriosclerosis, later to merge with the American Heart Association) would fully understand that from time to time it is necessary f...

The topics discussed in this article illustrate how molecular biology will have a dramatic impact on arteriosclerosis research. DNA clones for a small number of relevant proteins have been isolated, and studies are underway in numerous laboratories to extend these initial studies. The techniques of molecular biology will provide major advances in our understanding of numerous proteins directly ...

Over the last 20 years, aortic stiffness has emerged as an important, independent predictor of cardiovascular outcome. Recent data suggest that it may add to existing risk prediction models and improve patient stratification. However, the precise biological pathways and processes underlying aortic stiffening remain unclear. A better understanding of these is an important prerequisite for the ra...