Internationale Zeitschrift für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung

Atherosclerosis, Cancer, Wound Healing, and Inflammation - Shared or Parallel Evolution

Alexandra Lucas

Atherosclerosis, Cancer, Wound Healing, and Inflammation - Shared or Parallel Evolution

Wound healing is a complex process involving inflammatory cell activation and invasion as well as scar tissue deposition (in the form of fibrotic tissue and collagen matrix). With tissue repair there is active cell proliferation designed to heal the damaged tissues. Recent work has suggested that cancer is a form of dysregulated wound healing where inflammatory responses and cellular proliferation goes awry. Additionally other diseases such as the highly prevalent atherosclerotic coronary plaque are hypothesized to be a form of unregulated wound healing.