Molecular basis of atheromatosis in children

Atheromatosis is a lifelong process that begins and develops silently even during fetal development and gen­erally shows clinical manifestations in adult life. The initiation and progressive formation of atheromatic lesions represents a complex interplay of both genetic and environmental factors. Over the last decades there have been numerous studies detecting atherosclerotic lesions in the coronary arteries of children and adolescents and demonstrating the early onset of this disease. Although more research is required in order to unravel the full genetic repertoire of atherogenesis, scientists have already made real progress towards understanding the molecular basis of early atheromatosis and the aetiopathogenesis of this complex disease involves genes related to inflammation, lipid metabolism, MMPs, epigenetic alterations of DNA and gene-environment interactions. Atheromatosis in children and adolescents is really a reversible process and anatomic changes observed in early atheromatosis are modifiable. Thus, primary prevention strategies beginning in childhood have great potential and might result in prevention of adult cardiovascular diseas