Commentaries on Cutting Edge Science Myocardial Infarction Accelerates Atherosclerosis

Activation of the sympathetic nervous system after myocardial infarction results in the mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells, causing an inflammatory boost that accelerates atherosclerosis. This may have important implications for future therapeutic interventions targeting inflammatory pathways. The social and economic impacts of atherosclerosis and subsequent macrovascular clinical manifestations like myo-cardial infarction (MI) and stroke are immense. Complications of atherosclerosis and MI, such as heart failure, and also re-current cardiovascular events present a major challenge. They seem to occur more frequently after MI than expected by pre-sumed linear progression of atherosclerosis. In a recent article in Nature, Dutta et al1 found strong evidence that, like in a vicious cycle, acute MI itself accelerates atherosclerosis by triggering a burst of acute systemic inflammation initiated b