[The role of free fatty acids in the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis]

Several diseases and functional disturbances (e.g. diabetes mellitus, obesity, phaeochromocytoma, chronic renal functional disturbances, psychosocial stress) marked by a disturbed metabolism of free fatty acids (FFA) and a hyperlipacidaemia correlate with a premature occurrence of arteriosclerotic alterations of the vessels. The FFA do not play an unimportant role as a link in the causal chain between the above-mentioned diseases or functional disturbances on the one hand and the atherogenesis on the other. Therefore an overview is given of the influence of a hyperlipacidaemia on important partial processes of the atherogenesis. In this connection the role of FFA in the lesion of the endothelium and in the formation of foam cells is depicted.