Adaptive Immunity and Atherosclerosis

Chronic inflammation driven by immune responses to lipid deposition in the arterial wall is now understood to be fundamental to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The frequent presence of T lymphocytes in human atherosclerotic lesions was first described in the 1980s, but experiments to test whether adaptive immunity influences lesion development and phenotype required animal models. The American Journal of Pathology has published many research articles focused on the role of inflammation and adaptive immunity in diet-induced and genetically manipulated murine models of atherosclerosis. Seminal articles in the 1990s were the first to describe the presence of T cells in mouse atherosclerotic lesions; other articles demonstrated the effects of defective adaptive immunity on lesion development in mice.