POLYPEPTIDE GROWTH-FACTORS AND ATHEROSCLEROSIS

The lesions of atherosclerosis represent a specialized response to chronic inflammation resulting from agents that injure endothelial cells or cause endothelial cell dysfunction. Numerous growth-regulatory molecules, both stimulatory and inhibitory in nature, play critical roles in inducing the fibroproliferative response that contributes to the formation of the advanced lesion of atherosclerosis, the fibrous plaque. These molecules are key factors in determining whether the potentially occlusive fibrous plaque lesions of atherosclerosis will progress, regress, or remain unchanged.