Atherosclerosis which accounts in Western Europe for more than 40 % of deaths, is a generalized disease that develops slowly and is symptomless until lesions have become sufficiently severe to cause myocardial or cerebral infarction. Research on specific and precocious markers of atherosclerosis and the development of non invasive techniques for their early detection represent major challenges in biomedical field. We hope that this volume of edited papers, a consequence of the third international colloquium on atherosclerosis, conducted at the University of Brussels, Belgium through the...

The past two decades have seen steady progress in our understanding of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The role of low density lipoprotein (LOL) increase and of LOL receptor deficiency or malfunctions in familial hypercholesterolemia has been largely enlightened by the works of Brown and Goldstein. These authors postulated also that modification of LOL to a form recognized by the scavenger or acetyl-LOL receptor may be required for lipid loading of macrophage-derived foam cells in the lesions. A growing body of evidence suggests that oxidative modification of LOL could enhance its...