Artherosclerosis

INTRODUCTION: Clinically significant coronary artery disease (CAD) in military and civilian pilots may result in disasterous consequences. Pilots with undiagnosed CAD occasionally suffer acute coronary syndrome (ACS) inflight. In single-pilot operations, ACS often ends in crew and passenger fatality. Current standards for assessing the presence of CAD are inadequate. In other nations, additional modalities are used to assess pilots for CAD. CASE: A 38-year-old F-16 pilot with no cardiac risk factors presents with chest pain following an 8-hour flight...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The article is principally intended to describe the recent evolutions in the field of research concerned with the metabolic actions of thyroid hormones and those of some of their metabolites or derivatives. Mitochondria, as a result of their functions, represent the principal objective of scientists investigating the mechanisms underlying the effects of thyroid hormones or their metabolites/derivatives. RECENT FINDINGS: Indeed, some important recent findings concern these organelles, and in particular mitochondrial uncoupling and its modulation by effectors...

BACKGROUND: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an autosomal disorder associated with elevated plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL) levels leading to premature coronary heart disease (CHD). As a result of long-term hyperlipemia, FH patients will present endarterium thickening and artherosclerosis. In the present study we scanned the related gene of a clinically diagnosed autosomal genetic hypercholesterolemia family for the possible mutations and established eukaryotic expression vector of mutation of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) gene with gene recombination technique to investigate the contributions of the variation on low density lipoprotein receptor (LDL-R) metabolism and function alternation...

OBJECTIVE: To establish the model of bone mesenchymal stem cell-derived smooth muscle cells (BMSC-SMCs) and investigate the role of BMSC-SMCs in the development and progression of artherosclerosis. METHODS: BMSCs were isolated from the femoral bone of SD rats by adherent tissue culture method, and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) were obtained from the thoracic aorta. The differentiation of BMSCs into BMSC-SMCs was induced in the conditioned medium. The specific markers of BMSCs and BMSC-SMCs were identified by immunofluorescence (IF) staining...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) on artherosclerosis (AS) and its mechanism in rats. METHODS: 125 healthy male SD rats of the weight (210 +/- 10) g were randomly divided into 5 groups: control group, AS model group, AS + low-dose NaHS (2.8 micromol/(kg x d)) group, AS+ middle-dose (14 micromol/(kg x d)) NaHS group, AS+ high-dose NaHS (28 micromol/(kg x d)) group. The atherosclerotic model was established by feeding high grease food and injecting large doses of VitD3...

OBJECTIVE: To establish a uremic apolipoprotein E knockout (apoE-/-) mouse model and explore the relationship between accelerated atherosclerosis and Treg/Teff balance. METHODS: Using apoE-/- mice with C57BL/6J background, uremic apoE-/- mice were created by electrocautery of the right kidney and nephrectomy of the left, and the control apoE-/- mice received a sham-operation. Two weeks after inducing uremia, the renal function of the mice were evaluated to assess the validity of the model...

OBJECTIVE: The expression of tissue factor (TF) in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of artherosclerosis (AS) and thrombosis. Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor for AS. Annexin A5, a calcium-dependent anionic-phospholipid-binding protein has anticoagulant effect mediated by its interaction with phosphatidylserine. We investigated the effects of Annexin A5 on homocysteine (Hcy)-induced TF expression and activity in VSMCs. METHODS: Human umbilical artery VSMCs were cultured by tissue explanting method, incubated with Hcy at various concentrations in the absence and presence of Annexin A5 (50 microg/ml)/mono-TFAb (10 microg/ml)...

OBJECTIVE: To establish an animal model for carotid artery stenosis in rabbits. METHODS: Forty New Zealand White rabbits were randomly divided into two groups, for 4-week and 8-week experiment, respectively. All rabbits were fed with a diet with 1.5% cholesterol for one week before the experiment started. The right common carotid arteries (RCCA) of the rabbits were then injured with nitrogen gas (100 mL/min x 5 min), with the left common carotid arteries (LCCA) serving as a control (self control)...

Atherosclerosis and toxoplasmosis are two widely prevalent diseases worldwide. The relationship between these diseases is now being elucidated. Atherosclerosis is a disease with three main components: increased blood lipoprotein/cholesterol and their deposition in the arterial wall, an important Th1-mediated proinflammatory reaction and thrombogenic status. Toxoplasma gondii, in turn, is dependent on host cholesterol for optimal intracellular growth and replication. As a result, host cholesterol will be cleared from the blood, reducing plasma low-density lipoprotein, a crucial atherosclerosis risk factor...

It was not until the first half of the 19th century that the vascular nature of strokes was readily recognized and accepted. Brain "softenings" were distinguished from hemorrhagic "apoplexy," but stroke etiology remained unstudied. The terms artherosclerosis, thrombosis, embolism, and lacune were introduced to indicate etiology, but carotid occlusive disease was recognized later, in the second half of the 19th century. The development of knowledge of stroke was slow, likely corresponding to limited interest by the great early neurologists: stroke never was a field of critical interest in the Salpêtrière and Pitié Schools at the time of the local leading figures, Vulpian and Charcot...

We describe 2 cases of successful conversion from beating-heart (BH) to arrested-heart (AH) totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass surgery (TECAB). The preoperative computed tomographic (CT) scan of the first patient showed significant artherosclerosis of the femoral vessels in both groins. Therefore we tried to avoid inguinal cannulation by performing an off-pump BH-TECAB. But the target vessel was strongly fissured, and bleedings from the surrounding tissue made anastomotic suturing impossible. Therefore we cannulated the groin cautiously and endoclamped the aorta...

Atherosclerosis represents dynamic process with periodic tendency to reverse. Although animal experiments and human studies have provided considerable evidence of atherosclerosis regression, our understanding of this phenomenon remains still incomplete. Atherosclerosis regression depends on removal of cholesterol deposits from atherosclerotic plague in the process of reverse cholesterol transport and possibly other mechanisms including migration of macrophages and foam cells, inhibition of inflammation and endothelial regeneration...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and artherosclerosis share common characteristics in their pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated the effects of lipoproteins like native (n)-LDL, oxidized (ox)-LDL and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) on advanced senescence, extracellular matrix accumulation, cell loss, and transforming growth factor-beta2 (TGF-beta2) expression in cultured human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Primary human RPE cells were incubated with 10-100 microg/ml n-LDL, ox-LDL, and HDL for 24h...

There is increasing interest in understanding the role of neighborhood-level factors on the health of individuals. Many large-scale epidemiological studies that accurately measure health status of individuals and individual risk factors exist. Sometimes these studies are linked to area-level databases (e.g. census) to assess the association between crude area-level characteristics and health. However, information from such databases may not measure the neighborhood-level constructs of interest. More recently, large-scale epidemiological studies have begun collecting data to measure specific features of neighborhoods using ancillary surveys...

PPARs are members of the steroid hormone nuclear receptor superfamily and play an important role in the regulation of lipid metabolism, energy balance, artherosclerosis and glucose control. Recent studies suggest that they play an important role in regulating inflammation. This review will focus on PPAR-alpha regulation of the immune response. We describe how PPAR-alpha regulates differentiation of T cells by transactivation and/or interaction with other transcription factors. Moreover, PPAR-alpha agonists have been shown to ameliorate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in mice, suggesting that they could provide a therapy for human autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of -1131T>C and c.553G>T polymorphisms and their haplotypes in apolipoprotein A5(ApoA5) gene with cereberovascular disease in Chinese. METHODS: Using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), we analyzed two ApoA5 genetic variants in 272 patients with cerebral infarction (CI) and 316 control individuals respectively. The levels of serum lipid profiles were measured with biochemical methodsìand the other clinical characters were obtained by case file investigation...

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA C22:6n-3), a typical long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) has many positive effects on diseases such as artherosclerosis, hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension and cancers. Marine fungi, especially Thraustochytrium spp. producing much DHA can serve as model organisms for explaining the mechanism on the biosynthesis of PUFA. We described two elongase genes (TFD6 and TFD5) involved in the biosynthesis of DHA in Thraustochytrium sp. FJN-10 was cloned by using reverse transcription PCR and rapid amplification of cDNA ends...

The influence of seven highly prevalent somatic chronic diseases on changes in cognitive functioning is investigated in older persons in a prospective design covering a 6-year follow-up period. The data were collected as part of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). The associations between chronic diseases and cognitive functioning during 6 years of follow-up were analyzed among 1358 respondents (age 62-85) using generalized estimated equations (GEE). Cognitive tests were used to assess: general cognitive functioning, fluid intelligence, information processing speed and memory performance...

Retinal arterial macroaneurysms (MA) are a rare pathology, often associated with old age, arterial hypertension, artherosclerosis, and retinal vein occlusions. Here, we present two unusual cases of MA in patients with arterial hypertension, that displayed small vascular networks at the site of the MA on angiography. Resulting exudative changes and the networks themselves regressed after laser treatment, and visual acuity improved. Those vascular networks might represent collateral vessels forming as a rare sequel after spontaneous occlusion of the MA...

Endothelial monolayer integrity is required to maintain endothelial barrier functions and has found to be impaired in several disorders like inflammatory edema, allergic shock, or artherosclerosis. Under physiologic conditions in vivo, endothelial cells are exposed to mechanical forces such as hydrostatic pressure, shear stress, and cyclic stretch. However, insight into the effects of hydrostatic pressure on endothelial cell biology is very limited at present. Therefore, in this study, we tested the hypothesis that physiological hydrostatic pressure protects endothelial monolayer integrity in vitro...