PMID- 9763521
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 19981102
LR  - 20190831
IS  - 1079-5642 (Print)
IS  - 1079-5642 (Linking)
VI  - 18
IP  - 10
DP  - 1998 Oct
TI  - Apoptosis in the atherosclerotic plaque: quantitative and qualitative aspects.
PG  - 1519-22
AB  - Several laboratories have demonstrated the presence of apoptotic cell death in 
      atherosclerotic plaques. Apoptosis occurs in at least 2 stages. The final 
      "execution" phase, which includes DNA fragmentation, is brief ( approximately 6 
      hours) and irreversible and can be detected by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl 
      transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) technique. The TUNEL 
      technique is only selective (rather than specific) for apoptotic nuclei, because 
      these contain a far greater degree of DNA fragmentation than do nonapoptotic 
      nuclei. Nonapoptotic cell nuclei that show high levels of RNA synthesis and 
      splicing can also be labeled. This could explain the large variation in the 
      reported percentages of TUNEL-positive nuclei in the plaques. Therefore, the 
      TUNEL technique should be combined with additional techniques, such as markers of 
      transcription and morphological criteria. Recent studies indicate that human 
      fatty streaks differ from adaptive intimal thickenings by the presence of cells 
      containing pro-apoptotic proteins. However, apoptotic cell death is present only 
      in advanced atherosclerotic plaques that show a dense macrophage infiltration. 
      This indicates that although both smooth muscle cells and macrophages within the 
      human fatty streaks become susceptible to apoptosis, additional factors (mainly 
      macrophage- and lipid-derived factors) are necessary to terminate the cell death 
      pathway.
FAU - Kockx, M M
AU  - Kockx MM
AD  - Department of Pathology AZ-Middelheim and Division of Pharmacology, University of 
      Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. mark.kockx@uia.ua.ac.be
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Review
PL  - United States
TA  - Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol
JT  - Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology
JID - 9505803
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - *Apoptosis
MH  - Arteriosclerosis/*pathology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Muscle, Smooth, Vascular/pathology
RF  - 47
EDAT- 1998/10/09 00:00
MHDA- 1998/10/09 00:01
CRDT- 1998/10/09 00:00
PHST- 1998/10/09 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1998/10/09 00:01 [medline]
PHST- 1998/10/09 00:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1161/01.atv.18.10.1519 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 1998 Oct;18(10):1519-22. doi: 
      10.1161/01.atv.18.10.1519.