Macrophages and Their Role in Atherosclerosis: Pathophysiology and Transcriptome Analysis

Atherosclerosis can be regarded as a chronic inflammatory state, in which macrophages play different and important roles. Phagocytic proinflammatory cells populate growing atherosclerotic lesions, where they actively participate in cholesterol accumulation. Moreover, macrophages promote formation of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BioMed research international 2016-01, Vol.2016 (2016), p.1-13
Main Authors: Nikiforov, Nikita G., Chistiakov, Dimitry A., Ivanova, Ekaterina A., Bobryshev, Yuri V., Orekhov, Alexander N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Analysis
Animals
Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis - immunology
Cancer
Chemokines
Cholesterol
Colleges & universities
Cytokines
Cytokines - immunology
Development and progression
Gene expression
Humans
Inflammasomes - immunology
Lipids
Lipoproteins
Macrophage Activation - immunology
Macrophages
Macrophages - immunology
Models, Immunological
Pathogenesis
Review
Transcriptome - immunology
Tumor necrosis factor-TNF
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Summary:Atherosclerosis can be regarded as a chronic inflammatory state, in which macrophages play different and important roles. Phagocytic proinflammatory cells populate growing atherosclerotic lesions, where they actively participate in cholesterol accumulation. Moreover, macrophages promote formation of complicated and unstable plaques by maintaining proinflammatory microenvironment. At the same time, anti-inflammatory macrophages contribute to tissue repair and remodelling and plaque stabilization. Macrophages therefore represent attractive targets for development of antiatherosclerotic therapy, which can aim to reduce monocyte recruitment to the lesion site, inhibit proinflammatory macrophages, or stimulate anti-inflammatory responses and cholesterol efflux. More studies are needed, however, to create a comprehensive classification of different macrophage phenotypes and to define their roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. In this review, we provide an overview of the current knowledge on macrophage diversity, activation, and plasticity in atherosclerosis and describe macrophage-based cellular tests for evaluation of potential antiatherosclerotic substances.
ISSN:2314-6133
2314-6141
DOI:10.1155/2016/9582430