The pathophysiology of vascular lesions after balloon angioplasty remains poorly understood. A major limitation of most experimental studies in this regard is that injury was assessed in healthy arteries. Our aim was to study the effects of hypercholesterolemia in a mouse vascular injury model that mimics human balloon angioplasty.
Cardiovascular Research, Institute of Physiology, Zurich University and Cardiology CardioVascular Center, University Hospital Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland. cmatter@physiol.unizh.ch