Does C-reactive protein Incite Atherosclerosis?
Atherosclerosis is regarded as a dynamic and progressive disease arising from the combination of endothelial dysfunction and inflammation.28 The maintenance of vascular homeostasis depends on a balance between endothelium-derived relaxing and contracting factors. With disruption of this balance, the vasculature becomes susceptible to atheroma formation. Endothelial dysfunction, which implies the diminished production or availability of nitric oxide (NO), an increase in endothelium-derived contracting factors, such as endothelin-1, angiotensin or both, sets the stage for inflammation and atherogenesis. CRP appears to serve not only as a marker of this pathologic inflammatory process but also as an active partaker in all stages of atherogenesis, since it is present in atherosclerotic lesions but not in the normal vessel wall.29Laboratory data from our group and others suggests that human recombinant CRP, at concentrations known to predict vascular disease, elicits a multitude of effects
