JBR Invited Review Open Access at PubMed Central

Available online at www. jbr-pub.org Atherosclerosis is a progressive human pathology that encompasses several stages of development. Endothelial dysfunction represents an early sign of lesion within the vasculature. A number of risk factors for atherosclero-sis, including hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and hypertension, target the vascular endothelium by re-programming its transcriptome. These profound alterations taking place on the chromatin rely on the interplay between sequence specific transcription factors and the epigenetic machinery. The epigenetic machinery, in turn, tailor individual transcription events key to atherogenesis to intrinsic and extrinsic insults dictating the development of atheroscle-rotic lesions. This review summarizes our current understanding of the involvement of the epigenetic machinery in endothelial injury during atherogenesis