The Effects And Potential Mechanisms Of Pioglitazone On CD40/CD40L Inflammation Signal Pathway Associated With Atherosclerosis

Background:Atherosclerosis is considered as an immuno-inflammatory disease. Acute coronary syndrome is a process of acute inflammation accompanied by plaque rupture and thrombosis.Platelet activation exists in the whole pathogenesis process of atherosclerosis.The immune modulator CD40/CD40L play an important role in the initiation , progression and prognosis of atherosclerosis, recently studies showed plasma sCD40L was an independent indicator of prognosis in patients with coronary heart disease .Patients with acute coronary syndrome showed higher level of sCD401 than those stable coronary heart diseases. Recently, studies demonstrated that hypercholesterolemia(HC), one of the major cardiovascular risk factors, increased CD40 and CD40L expression on platelets ,endothelial cells and monocytes as well as plasma levels of soluble CD40L. In addition, it has been shown that blocking CD40-CD40L interactions significantly prevented the development of atherosclerotic plaques and reduced already pre-established lesions. Both...