Illustrating that Inflammation is Important in the Progression of Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a condition of macrophage dysfunction. Macrophages are responsible for clearing the excess and oxidized cholesterol that finds its way into blood vessel walls, but they falter at this task with advancing age. In part this is due to the inflammatory environment, which induces changes in the behavior of macrophages, tipping the balance of activities away from repair and towards further amplication of inflammatory signaling. The research noted here demonstrates the relevance of chronic inflammation to the progression of atherosclerosis in a population of patients on statins, looking at risk of subsequent cardiovascular mortality based on inflammatory status. Once a patient is on statin therapy, cardiologists typically describe two conditions: "residual cholesterol risk" which can be further reduced with additional lipid-lowering therapy, and "residual inflammatory risk" which can be further reduced with certain drugs that impact vascular inflammation. Whether clinicians should choose to focus on further lowering cholesterol or inflammation has been uncertain and controversial. Researchers examined data from three recently conducted clinical trials (PROMINENT, REDUCE-IT and STRENGTH) of patients with or at high risk for atherosclerotic disease to understand the relative importance of "residual inflammatory risk" as compared to "residual cholesterol risk" among contemporary statin-treated patients. All patients were receiving aggressive guideline...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs