A Selection of Mechanisms Relevant to Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is the growth of fatty lesions in blood vessel walls, leading eventually to a rupture and blockage to cause a heart attack or stroke, and along the way causing narrowing of blood vessels sufficient to lead to heart failure and dysfunction elsewhere in the body as the supply of blood to tissues is reduced. Today's paper on this topic is a little disorganized, something of a random assembly of thoughts on mechanisms relevant to the development of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the single largest cause of human mortality, and attempts to treat contributing mechanisms have so far not stopped it from being the single largest cause of human mortality. So perhaps it is something that we should all be putting more thought into, and broadening the range of development programs in an attempt to produce more meaningful therapies. Atherosclerosis is chronic arterial inflammation caused by both conventional and unconventional risk factors that result in plaque development in the vascular intima. Inflammation starts with the activation of NLRP3 inflammasomes, which results in the production of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1 and IL-18, acting via the autocrine, paracrine, or endocrine pathways. IL-1 has been demonstrated to promote its own gene expression in a variety of cell types through an amplification loop known as autoinduction. IL-1 increases endothelial dysfunction, leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion, procoagulant activity, and neutrophil recruitment, ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs