[Pathogenesis of coronary sclerosis]

It should first be pointed out that all arterial wall cells are mesenchymal cells, and that arteriosclerosis is a reactive disease of the arterial wall. A huge amount of different pathological factors is capable of inducing a reaction of arterial wall cells in the context of the "unspecific mesenchymal reaction". The reaction of the arterial wall cells to the influence of these factors is a biological process occurring as a complicated event of induction and reaction. The primary, necessary and fundamental pathological event in the process of atherogenesis is an alteration in the metabolism of the arterial wall cells induced by pathological risk factors. The direct result of these pathological alterations in the metabolism of the arterial wall cells are changes in structure and function of the entire arterial wall and the individual arterial wall cells (intimal lesion, hyalinosis, fibrosis, lipidosis, fibrinoses and thrombosis).