Search results for "HERO"
showing 10 items of 1331 documents
Prevention of Atherosclerosis by Interference with the Vascular Nitric Oxide System
2009
Nitric oxide (NO) produced by endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) represents an anti-atherosclerotic principle. NO bioavailability is decreased in atherosclerosis due to increased NO inactivation by reactive oxygen species and reduced NO synthesis. Various types of vascular pathophysiology are associated with oxidative stress, with NADPH oxidases as the major source of reactive oxygen species. These inactivate NO. Also, oxidative stress is likely to be the main cause for oxidation of the essential NOS cofactor, tetrahydrobiopterin (BH(4)). A lack of BH(4) leads to eNOS uncoupling (i.e., uncoupling of oxygen reduction from NO synthesis in eNOS). Based on these pathomechanisms, the therapeutic pot…
Newborn rabbit responsiveness to the mammary pheromone is concentration-dependent.
2004
The effect of the intensity of odour signals has rarely been investigated in the regulation of odour-guided behaviour in young mammals. This series of experiments used the mammary pheromone (MP) of the female rabbit to assess the influence of stimulus concentration on neonatal pup responsiveness. The MP is a single compound isolated from rabbit milk that releases in pups the typical head searching and oral seizing behaviour. The pups (n = 621) were exposed to graded concentrations of the MP in bioassays varying in stimulus delivery conditions. Experiment 1 demonstrated that in aqueous dilutions the MP efficiently elicits behavioural responses only within a limited range of concentrations (f…
One year after the ESC/EAS guidelines on cholesterol control. What's the new evidence? What's missing?
2021
The recent ESC/EAS 2019 Guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias are centred on the causal role of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or more generally apolipoprotein B (apoB)-containing lipoproteins, in atherosclerosis as an essential principle. Despite updated goals and recommendations, that have further highlighted the importance of a powerful reduction in LDL-C levels to reduce the individual CV risk, some challenges remain to be addressed in view of future guideline elaboration. In this review, we will summarize the new evidence from clinical trials since 2019 guideline release and discuss the possible challenges for the future.
An Exploratory Look at Bicuspid Aortic Valve (Bav) Aortopathy: Focus on Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms
2019
Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common congenital heart malformation. BAV patients are at increased risk for aortic valve disease (stenosis/regurgitation), infective endocarditis, thrombi formation and, in particular, aortic dilatation, aneurysm and dissection. This review aims at exploring the possible interplay among genetics, extracellular matrix remodeling, abnormal signaling pathways, oxidative stress and inflammation in contributing to BAV-associated aortopathy (BAV-A-A). Novel circulating biomarkers have been proposed as diagnostic tools able to improve risk stratification in BAV-A-A. However, to date, the precise molecular and cellular mechanisms that lead to BAV-A-A remain …
Clinical utility of novel biomarkers for cardiovascular disease risk stratification
2012
Over the past few decades, a number of coronary artery disease (CAD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors have been identified. The predictive power of "conventional" risk factors have been validated by observational, prospective and intervention studies. Nevertheless, all attempts to exactly predict the individual risk for CAD have failed, biased by a large number of incorrectly risk-classified subjects. To improve cardiovascular (CV) risk prediction, a large number of genetic and/or non-genetic biomarkers have been discovered and tested against the "classical" risk factors for their power to predict CV risk. Only few of them had a significant improvement over the predictive model…
ANMCO/ISS/AMD/ANCE/ARCA/FADOI/GICR-IACPR/SICI-GISE/SIBioC/SIC/SICOA/SID/SIF/SIMEU/SIMG/SIMI/SISA Joint Consensus Document on cholesterol and cardiova…
2017
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease still represents the leading cause of death in western countries. A wealth of scientific evidence demonstrates that increased blood cholesterol levels have a major impact on the outbreak and progression of atherosclerotic plaques. Moreover, several cholesterol-lowering pharmacological agents, including statins and ezetimibe, have proven effective in improving clinical outcomes. This document is focused on the clinical management of hypercholesterolemia and has been conceived by 16 Italian medical associations with the support of the Italian National Institute of Health. The authors have considered with particular attention the role of hypercholesterole…
Lipid triad or atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype: a role in cardiovascular prevention?
2005
The term "lipid triad" or "atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype" has been introduced to describe a common form of dyslipidemia, characterized by three lipid abnormalities: increased plasma triglyceride levels, decreased HDL-cholesterol concentrations and the presence of small, dense LDL particles. It has been suggested that the clinical importance of the atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype probably exceeds that of LDL-cholesterol, because many more patients with coronary artery disease are found to have this trait than hypercholesterolaemia. There is a body of evidence that therapies effective against plasma HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides are associated with a strong reduction of cardiovascul…
Update on the role of the atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype in cardiovascular prevention
2009
Higher plasma triglyceride levels and decreased HDL-cholesterol concentrations are usually accompanied by the presence of small, dense LDL in the so-called lipid triad or ‘atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype’. This phenotype is highly atherogenic and its prevalence may suggest an even higher overall burden of atherosclerotic disease as compared with that associated with hypercholesterolemia. As stated by the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III, there is evidence suggesting each component of this lipid triad is individually atherogenic. However, the relative contribution of each component cannot be easily determined. Therefore, it has been suggested to consider th…
Should we measure routinely the LDL peak particle size?
2004
Low density lipoproteins (LDL) do not show in humans a normal distribution and comprise two different main fractions: large, buoyant (phenotype pattern A) and small, dense (phenotype pattern B) particles, that differ not only in size and density but also in physicochemical composition, metabolic behaviour and atherogenicity. The prevalence of small, dense LDL changes with age (30-35% in adult men, 5-10% in men <20 years and in pre-menopausal women, 15-25% in postmenopausal women) and is genetically influenced, with a heritability ranging from 35% to 45%. Small, dense LDL correlate negatively with plasma HDL levels and positively with plasma triglyceride levels and are associated with the me…