Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA.
The process of atherosclerosis is a life-threatening disease that affects critical organs including the heart and brain. It results from the influence of noxious agents associated with hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, cigarette smoking, homocysteinemia, and other agents that may, in altering the homeostatic condition of the artery wall, injure the endothelium and smooth muscle. The result is a protective, inflammatory, fibroproliferative response that becomes excessive and in its excess results in the disease process we call atherosclerosis.