Lecture 12 - Cardiovascular Research Modeling Disease

Question 1

What happens to elastic tissue in someone with dyslipidemia?

Answer 1

Their elastic tissue gets stiffer.

Atherosclerosis eventually ages the elastic tissue causing it to eventually break, and smooth muscle migrates out

Question 2

What are the steps of atherosclerosis?

Answer 2

1. Internal eleastic lamina failure
2. Monocytes are attarcted by monocyte chemoattractant protein and then adhere to the endothelium at that site via ICAN-1, they then push between the endothelial cells in diapedesis.
3. Fatty streak formation - Once inside the intima the macrophages become scavenger cells since they express scavenger receptors. They have a high affinity for modified LDL, and can take them up into their lysosome. The scavenger cells increasingly get larger to form foam cells, they eventually burst.
4. Lesion progression: Initimal, medial& adevntitial lesions. The dying and release of LDL causes there to be a concentrated region of lipoprotein, which eventually causes crystals to form, and there is also smooth muscle proliferation here.

Question 4

What is atherosclerosis?

Answer 4

Atheromatous ateriosclerosis lesion (typically in large arteries)

If it’s in larger arteries we tend to call it atherosclerosis, in smaller arteries its ateriosclerosis

Question 5

Where do abdominal aortic aneyrysms occur?

Answer 5

In the infrarenal segment of the abdominal aorta

Question 6

What is 1 pack year

Answer 6

1 20 pack a day for a year

Question 7

What are other cardiovascular risk factors?

Answer 7

• BMI
• Waist/ Hip ratio
  
  • Waist circumference, adipose distribution
• Family history
• Age
• Gender

Question 8

Which allele associated with LDL-chol is lower in AAA patients?

Answer 8

Theres a lower G allele

G allele carriers are associated with decreased LDL cholesterol.

AAA is associated with dyslipidemia, so this makes sense

Odds ratio is 0.61 for AAA for those with the G allele *has been adjusted for confounders

Question 9

Are genetic markers of CVS disease independant of demographic or environmental risk factors?

Answer 9

NO

e.g. there are paticular gene variants that make you smoke more than somebody without the variant