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World J Clin Cases. Apr 16, 2015; 3(4): 345-352
Published online Apr 16, 2015. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v3.i4.345
Atherosclerosis and the role of immune cells
Fulya Ilhan, Sevgi Tas Kalkanli
Fulya Ilhan, Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Firat, 23200 Elazıg, Turkey
Sevgi Tas Kalkanli, Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Dicle, 21280 Diyarbakir, Turkey
Author contributions: İlhan F and Kalkanli ST contributed equally to writing the manuscript; both authors revised the article and approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest: There is no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Fulya Ilhan, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Firat, 23200 Elazıg, Turkey. fulhan23@yahoo.com
Telephone: +90-424-2122960 Fax: +90-424-2379138
Received: May 13, 2014
Peer-review started: May 13, 2014
First decision: June 6, 2014
Revised: December 1, 2014
Accepted: January 18, 2015
Article in press: January 20, 2015
Published online: April 16, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Activated endothelium to adhere to the endothelium and move into the intima with the expression of adhesion molecules appears to be an early event in atherosclerosis, which allows mononuclear leukocytes such as monocytes and T-cells. This inflammatory mechanism must be explained before determining a new therapy.