The authors evaluated risk factors potentially associated with the development of popliteal artery atherosclerosis in a population-based study and compared them with factors linked to carotid wall intimal-medial thickness. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study is a longitudinal investigation of cardiovascular disease in 15,800 individuals. The present analyses are based on the ba...

Activation of the nuclear receptor/transcription factor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), is a newly defined target for limiting vascular pathologies. PPARgamma is expressed in human and animal models of vascular disease, with particularly high levels being present in the cells of the neointimal microenvironment. In the present study, we show that intimal smooth mus...

percutaneous pulmonary balloon valvuloplasty (pbv) remains the treatment of choice for pulmonary stenosis (ps). this procedure is effective, safe and gives excellent results. pulmonary artery (pa) dissection is a rare complication of pbv. this report is a case of an asymptomatic 17-year-old male with a history of pbv due to severe ps dating back to fifteen years ago. during recent echocardiogra...

Receptors belonging to the LDL receptor (LDLR) family are thought to play key roles in lipoprotein metabolism in a variety of tissues, including the arterial wall. Here, we report that the expression of a 250-kDa mosaic LDLR family member, which we called LR11 for the presence of 11 ligand-binding repeats, is markedly induced during the process of atherogenesis in 2 animal models. Analysis by r...

The contribution of intimal cell proliferation to the formation of early atherosclerotic lesions is poorly understood. We combined 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine pulse labeling with sensitive en face immunoconfocal microscopy analysis, and quantified intimal cell proliferation and Ly-6C(high) monocyte recruitment in low density lipoprotein receptor-null mice. Cell proliferation begins in nascent lesio...

Vein grafting results in the development of intimal hyperplasia with accompanying changes in guanine nucleotide-binding (G) protein expression and function. Several serum mitogens that act through G protein-coupled receptors, such as lysophosphatidic acid, stimulate proliferative pathways that are dependent on the G protein betagamma subunit (Gbetagamma)-mediated activation of p21ras. This stud...

Immune factors are involved in modulating neointimal response to arterial wall injury, but the role of individual immune effectors in this response remains unclear. Using a carotid cuff injury model in mice, we tested the role of immunoglobulin isotypes in modulating intimal thickening by using adoptive transfer of splenocytes from WT mice, or the direct administration of IgG or IgM into immune...

Intimal proliferation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) is a key event in the vascular response to injury, including the early stages of atherosclerosis and restenosis after angioplasty. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) has been reported to stimulate growth of cultured human SMCs, but activation of TNF receptors is also known to induce cell death by apoptosis. We report here that SMCs isolat...

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy and the possible mechanism of action of a recently synthesized drug, TAS-301 [3-bis (4-methoxyphenyl)methylene-2-indolinone], on intimal formation in comparison with those of tranilast, the clinical efficacy of which was reported earlier. Rat carotid arteries were injured using a balloon catheter. Neointimal thickening, measured 14 days af...