Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Causes of atherosclerosis

Some researchers believe that atherosclerosis may be caused by an
 Infection of the vascular smooth muscle cells; chickens, for example, develop atherosclerosis when infected with the Marek's disease herpesvirus. Herpesvirus infection of arterial smooth muscle cells has been shown to cause cholesteryl ester (CE) accumulation. Cholesteryl ester accumulation is associated with atherosclerosis.

Also, cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with cardiovascular diseases.
Linus Pauling's and Matthias Rath's extended theory states that deaths from scurvy in humans during the ice age, when vitamin C (an antioxidant) was scarce, selected for individuals who could repair arteries with a layer of cholesterol provided by lipoprotein(a), a lipoprotein found in vitamin C-deficient species (higher primates and guinea pigs). Pauling and Rath theorised that, although eventually harmful, lipoprotein deposition on artery walls was beneficial to the human species and a "surrogate for ascorbate" in that it kept individuals alive until access to vitamin C allowed arterial damage to be repaired. Atherosclerosis is thus a vitamin-C-deficiency disease.

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