title: Is the amount of coronary perivascular fat related to atherosclerosis?
abstract: Interesting and stimulating data about the effect of the perivascular adipose tissue size on atherogenesis are based mainly on CT findings. We studied this topic by directly analyzing perivascular adipose tissue in explanted hearts from patients undergoing transplantation. Ninety-six consecutive patients were included, including 58 with atherosclerotic coronary heart disease (CHD) and 38 with dilation cardiomyopathy (DCMP). The area of perivascular fat, area of the coronary artery wall, and ratio of CD68-positive macrophages within the perivascular fat and within the vascular wall were quantified by immunohistochemistry. There was no significant difference in the perivascular adipose tissue size between the two groups. Nevertheless, there was a significantly higher number of macrophages in the coronary arterial wall of CHD patients. In addition, we found a close relationship between the ratio of macrophages in the arterial wall and adjacent perivascular adipose tissue in the CHD group, but not in the DCMP group. According to our data interaction between macrophages in the arterial wall and macrophages in surrounding adipose tissue could be more important mechanism of atherogenesis than the size of this tissue itself.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Atherosclerosis Research, Centre for Experimental Medicine, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic. ivka@ikem.cz.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kralova Lesna
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tonar
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Malek
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maluskova
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nedorost
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pirk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pitha
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lanska
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Poledne
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged