Heart attack worsens atherosclerosis
A heart attack doesn’t just damage heart muscle tissue by cutting off its blood supply, it also sets off an inflammatory cascade that worsens underlying atherosclerosis, actively increasing the risk for a future heart attack. These findings from a study receiving advance online publication in the journal Nature suggest an important new therapeutic strategy for preventing heart attacks and strokes, both of which are caused when atherosclerotic plaques rupture and block important blood vessels. “We have known for a long time that heart attack patients are at increased risk for a second heart attack or a stroke, and now we know why,” says Matthias Nahrendorf of the Center for Systems Biology at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Nahrendorf, assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), is the senior author of the report from a team of researchers from the United States, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands. “The immune response to the...