Ilhan F, Kalkanli ST. Atherosclerosis and the role of immune cells. World J Clin Cases 2015; 3(4): 345-352 [PMID: 25879006 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v3.i4.345]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Fulya Ilhan, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Firat, 23200 Elazıg, Turkey. fulhan23@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Immunology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
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
Abstract
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease arising from lipids, specifically low-density lipoproteins, and leukocytes. Following the activation of endothelium with the expression of adhesion molecules and monocytes, inflammatory cytokines from macrophages, and plasmacytoid dendritic cells, high levels of interferon (IFN)-α and β are generated upon the activation of toll-like receptor-9, and T-cells, especially the ones with Th1 profile, produce pro-inflammatory mediators such as IFN-γ and upregulate macrophages to adhere to the endothelium and migrate into the intima. This review presents an exhaustive account for the role of immune cells in the atherosclerosis.
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.
