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Published on: July 1, 2011
Immune cells in carotid artery plaques: what can we learn from endarterectomy specimens?
Hana Kubátová1,2, Rudolf Poledne3, Jan Piťha3,4
1Atherosclerosis Research Laboratory, Experimental Medicine Center, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic - hana.kubatova@ikem.cz.
Insights
Carotid endarterectomy specimens reveal immune cells in atherosclerotic plaques. Understanding cellular composition aids in assessing plaque stability and predicting stroke risk more accurately.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Research
- Immunology
- Pathology
Background:
- Carotid endarterectomy specimens offer a unique window into atherosclerosis.
- Atherogenesis research benefits from studying the cellular makeup of these specimens.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review current knowledge on atherogenesis by analyzing the cellular composition of carotid endarterectomy specimens.
- To explore the role of immune cells in plaque development and stability.
Main Methods:
- A non-systematic literature review was conducted.
- 95 relevant articles were selected through forward and backward searches.
- Focused on ex vivo analysis of carotid artery plaque composition.
Main Results:
- In vivo imaging for stroke prediction based on plaque morphology is unreliable.
- Studies increasingly focus on characterizing immune cell types and their function in plaque development.
- Immune cell subpopulations in carotid plaques are linked to plaque instability.
Conclusions:
- Plaque destabilization is multifactorial, requiring combined analytical methods.
- Cellular composition analysis provides insights into plaque progression.
- Integrating cellular and morphological data can improve plaque stability assessment.
Introduction:
Endarterectomy specimens represent a unique opportunity to study atherosclerosis. This review aims to summarize the recent knowledge of atherogenesis from studies characterizing a cellular composition of carotid endarterectomy specimens.
Evidence Acquisition:
A non-systematic literature review was carried out to summarize recent knowledge regarding ex vivo analysis of carotid artery plaque composition. Upon evaluation of their relevance, and elaborate forward and backward search, 95 articles were included in the review.
Evidence Synthesis:
Despite the significant advancement of in vivo imaging techniques, the stroke prediction based on carotid artery plaque morphology is not reliable. Besides analyses of plaque morphology, present studies focus on precise characterization of the different immune cell types and elucidation of their role in plaque development. Plaque content analyses revealed the presence of various immune cells in carotid artery plaques. Presence of different immune cells subpopulations can be connected to some undesirable changes in plaque stability.
Conclusions:
Since the destabilization of the atherosclerotic plaque is a multifactorial process, a combination of various methods should be used to characterize the unstable plaques more accurately. In this context, studies characterizing plaque content from a cellular point of view could elucidate some processes underlying the plaque progression. Together with morphological evaluation, these analyses could enable more precise assessment of plaque stability.
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