State-of-the-art review article. Atherosclerosis affecting fat: What can we learn by imaging perivascular adipose tissue?

ABSTRACT: Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) surrounding the human coronary arteries, secretes a wide range of adipocytokines affecting the biology of the adjacent vascular wall in a paracrine way. However, we have recently found that PVAT also behaves as a sensor of signals coming from the vascular wall, to which it reacts by changing its morphology and secretory profile. Indeed, vascular inflammation, a key feature of vascular disease pathogenesis, leads to the release of inflammatory signals that disseminate into local fat, inducing local lipolysis and inhibiting adipogenesis. This ability of PVAT to sense inflammatory signals from the vascular wall, can be used as a "thermometer" of the vascular wall, allowing for non-invasive detection of coronary inflammation. Vascular inflammation induces a s

SUBMITTER: Antoniades C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6928589 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep - Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature