Atherosclerosis Initiation Modeled as an Inflammatory Process
In this work we study the inflammatory process resulting in the development of atherosclerosis. We develop a one- and two-dimensional models based on reaction-diffusion systems to describe the set up of a chronic inflammatory response in the intima of an artery vessel wall. The concentration of the oxidized low density lipoproteins (ox-LDL) in the intima is the critical parameter of the model. Low ox-LDL concentrations do not lead to a chronic inflammatory reaction. Intermediate ox-LDL concentrations...