Laura Spinney the Vascular Tree Deciphering N ° 3 APRIL 2007 TheVascular Tree Aflame

Culprit cells and molecules in the hot plaque Göran Hansson 11 nflammare: to set on fire. It was around the time of the birth of Christ that the Roman physician Celsus proposed his four cardinal signs of inflammation: redness, swelling, heat and pain. Two centuries later the Greek physician Galen promoted the concept of “laudable pus”, to express his humoral view of inflammation as a beneficial process to repair wounds. This view persisted until the 19th century, when the fifth cardinal sign, loss of function, was added by Rudolf Virchow. In contrast with Galen, however, Virchow viewed inflammation as inherently pathological. In recent years scientists have come to realise the central role that inflammation plays in many cardiovascular pathologies, and to think of atherosclerosis as an inflammatory disease.