The chemokine system controls homing and functional properties of bone marrow endothelial progenitors during atherosclerosis regression

Abstract

Atherosclerosis manifests itself as arterial plaques, which may rupture causing heart attack or stroke. The main factor inducing atherosclerosis is hypercholesterolemia. Lowering plasma cholesterol through the use of statins can retard progression of atherosclerosis but induces only partial plaque regression. Because of this, patients treated with statins remain prone to cardiovascular complications. Thus, treatments supporting complete plaque resolution are being sought. We evaluated plaque resolution in low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient (Ldlr-/-) and Reversa mice.