Effect of smoking on abdominal aortic aneurysms: novel insights through murine models

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a poorly understood and fatal disease. The etiology of the disease is believed to be multifactorial. Of all the recognized clinical associations, none has a greater impact on the incidence and progression of the disease than exposure to tobacco smoke. Novel murine models developed over the past several years present the opportunity to investigate the mechanism of this critical clinical relationship.