Distribution and Severity of Atherosclerotic Lesions in the Human Thoracic Aorta

Ultrastructural Recognition of Cells with Dendritic Cell Morphology in Human Aortic Intima. Contacting Interactions of Vascular Dendritic Cells in Athero-resistant and Athero-prone Areas of the Normal Aorta.

“…1), corresponding to recommendations by BHAGWAT and ROBERTSON (1973). Four or five samples of normal tissue without visible intimal thickening or other lesions were each taken from atherosclerotic lesion resistant areas (AR) and from areas predisposed to atherosclerosis (AP).…”

“…Recently, cell-rich areas in normal looking intima of children, young subjects, and young adults have been demonstrated (SHIMOKAMA et al, 1991;KISHIKAWA et al, 1993). These cell-rich areas consist of monocytes/ macrophages and T-lymphocytes and are also located in the intima near the ostia of intercostal arteries and in the posterior wall of the thoracic aorta, both sites which are prone to fatty streaks and atherosclerosis (SCHWARTZ and MITCHELL, 1962;BHAGWAT and ROBERTSON, 1973;STRONG, 1992). In areas prone to atherosclerosis (AP areas), the ratio between smooth muscle cells and monocytes/macrophages changes as the numbers of monocytes/macrophages increase (BABAEV et al, 1993).…”

Increased Shedding of Microvesicles from Intimal Smooth Muscle Cells in Athero-Prone Areas of the Human Aorta: Implications for Understanding of the Predisease Stage

“…Accumulated evidence indicates that the existence of areas with different predispositions to the development of atherosclerosis cannot be simply explained by the effects of different mechanical forces associated with turbulent versus laminar flow or by the altered distribution of pulsatile forces at tethered (branch) sites [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,24,25,26]. The present study extended the knowledge about the peculiarities of the arterial wall in AP sites and showed, for the first time, that the number of microvesicles (microparticles) is higher in the intimal extracellular matrix of AP areas than that in AR areas.…”

“…The topographic distribution of atherosclerotic lesions in the human arterial tree has been extensively surveyed [1,2,3,4,5] and athero-prone (AP) as well as athero-resistant (AR) areas of the aorta have been identified and mapped [1,2,5]. However, why some areas are prone to lesion formation is not clear, nor have the structural alterations prior to the identification of frank atherosclerotic lesions been well studied [1,2,3,4,5,6,7].…”

“…However, why some areas are prone to lesion formation is not clear, nor have the structural alterations prior to the identification of frank atherosclerotic lesions been well studied [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. …”