Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis is the growth of fatty lesions in blood vessel walls, ultimately leading to a heart attack or stroke when an unstable lesion ruptures. Atherosclerosis is primarily a condition of macrophage dysfunction, in which these cells fail to keep up with their task of removing excess cholesterol from blood vessel walls in order to return it to to the bloodstream for transport back to the liver. The local excess of cholesterol is largely the proximate cause of this macrophage dysfunction, so as the amount of cholesterol grows, macrophages become ever less capable of dealing with it. They die, adding their mass to the lesion, while signaling for reinforcements that will suffer the same fate. That said, this is a description of how atherosclerosis progresses once […]
https://www.fightaging.org/arc....hives/2024/05/mitoch