Clinical Areas/Cardiovascular Atherosclerosis - MoD (Mechanism Of Disease)
The excerpt opposite is from an MoD explaining Atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis (ASVD) is the condition in which an artery wall thickens as the result of a build-up of fatty materials such as cholesterol.
It is a syndrome affecting arterial blood vessels, a chronic inflammatory response in the walls of arteries, in large part due to the accumulation of macrophage white blood cells and promoted by low-density lipoproteins (plasma proteins that carry cholesterol and triglycerides)
without adequate removal of fats and cholesterol from the macrophages by functional high density lipoproteins. It is caused by the formation of multiple plaques within the arteries.
The atheromatous plaque is divided into three distinct components:
- The atheroma which is the nodular accumulation of a soft, flaky, yellowish material at the center of large plaques, composed of macrophages nearest the lumen of the artery
- Underlying areas of cholesterol crystals
- Calcification at the outer base of older/more advanced lesions.
References:
- Maton, Anthea; Roshan L. Jean Hopkins, Charles William McLaughlin, Susan Johnson, Maryanna Quon Warner, David LaHart, Jill D. Wright (1993). Human Biology and Health. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-981176-1. OCLC 32308337.
- Emma Leah (May 2009). "Cholesterol". Lipidomics Gateway. doi:10.1038/lipidmaps.2009.3
- Pearson A, Budin M, Brocks JJ (December 2003). "Phylogenetic and biochemical evidence for sterol synthesis in the bacterium Gemmata obscuriglobus". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100 (26): 15352–7. doi:10.1073/pnas.2536559100. PMID 14660793.