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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Calcification of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells and Imaging of Aortic Calcification and Inflammation
Published on: May 31, 2016
Atherogenesis, calcium and calcium antagonists
1Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030.
Abstract:
Hypercholesterolemia and arterial hypertension are highly interrelated risk factors of atherosclerosis. Early lesions in nonhuman primates with dietary hypercholesterolemia resemble atherosclerotic lesions demonstrable in the arteries of American children with comparably elevated plasma cholesterol levels. Lesion formation depends upon calcium-regulated cellular processes such as chemotaxis, adhesion, migration, proliferation, lipid uptake and necrosis. Interventions acting on cell calcium uptake including treatment with calcium chelating agents, lanthanum trichloride, and calcium antagonists may retard atherogenesis in fat-fed animals in the absence of hypolipidemic effects. Recent controlled coronary angiographic trials in patients with coronary artery disease suggest that calcium antagonists may retard the progression of coronary atherosclerosis in humans. Large-scale long-term studies are needed to determine the utility of these agents for the treatment of coronary artery disease.
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