title: Vascular extracellular tissue and atherosclerosis.
abstract: If at all successful, tis paper will emphasized the perspective  that the current understanding of the interactions between arterial walls and the flowing blood, the major events leading to the development of arterial diseases, still has many obvious gaps. Even as superficial and selective a discussion as this one points out the truism that any hypothesis for the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis which considers only one of the structural elements in the artery wall is almost certainly incomplete. Decades ago, one of the great conceptual insights developed in the pioneering studies of intermediary metabolism was that well-integrated biochemical pathways have multiple interrelated controls. The many extracellular molecules present in aorta with both structural biochemistry and functions as yet only partially understood may well be components of analogous control systems.
mesh_terms: D001158:Arteries / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000209:etiology*; D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D002455:Cell Division; D004549:Elastin / Q000502:physiology; D005110:Extracellular Space / Q000032:analysis*; D006025:Glycosaminoglycans / Q000032:analysis / Q000502:physiology; D006133:Growth Substances; D006801:Humans; D011509:Proteoglycans / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D006025:Glycosaminoglycans; D006133:Growth Substances; D011509:Proteoglycans; D004549:Elastin