A thrombotic occlusion of the vessel fed by ruptured coronary atherosclerotic plaque may result in unstable angina, myocardial infarction or death, whereas embolization from a plaque in carotid arteries may result in transient ischemic attack or stroke. The atherosclerotic plaque prone to such clinical events is termed high-risk or vulnerable plaque, and its identification in humans before it b...

We perform subsurface ablation of atherosclerotic plaque using ultrafast pulses. Excised mouse aortas containing atherosclerotic plaque were ablated with ultrafast near-infrared (NIR) laser pulses. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to observe the ablation result, while the physical damage was inspected in histological sections. We characterize the effects of incident pulse energy on s...

Clinical complications associated with atherosclerotic plaques arise from luminal obstruction due to plaque growth or destabilization leading to rupture. Tumour necrosis factor ligand superfamily member 12 (TNFSF12) also known as TNF-related weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) is a proinflammatory cytokine that participates in atherosclerotic plaque development, but its role in plaque stability r...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Unstable atherosclerotic plaques are characterized by increased macrophages and reduced smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and collagen content. Endoglin, an accessory transforming growth factor-beta (TGFbeta) receptor, is a modulator of TGFbeta signaling recently found to be expressed on SMCs in atherosclerotic plaques. Its function in plaque SMCs and plaque development is unkno...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Atherosclerosis is a systemic disease, and both coronary and intracranial atherosclerosis are common in the elderly. Unlike coronary artery disease (CAD), intracranial atherosclerotic disease can cause intracranial atherosclerotic stroke by branch occlusive disease (B-type) and coronary-type rupture of plaque (C-type). We hypothesized that plaque characteristics of intrac...

Background and Purpose—Unstable atherosclerotic plaques are characterized by increased macrophages and reduced smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and collagen content. Endoglin, an accessory transforming growth factor(TGF ) receptor, is a modulator of TGF signaling recently found to be expressed on SMCs in atherosclerotic plaques. Its function in plaque SMCs and plaque development is unknown. Early gro...

The aim our study was to evaluate the levels of zinc in blood serum, hair, and specimens of carotid artery atherosclerotic plaques (CAAPs) and their relationship to levels of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in the serum of patients with stable and unstable CAAPs. Material and Methods: The study included 73 patients (55 men and 18 women) aged from 46 to 88 years (mean age 65.96±1.07 years) with CAAPs. The cont...