Abstract
Atherosclerosis has been studied in animals for exactly a century, starting with the pioneering studies of Ignatowski (reviewed in ref.).1 The motivation for those early studies is unclear, as atherosclerosis was not then recognized as a major disease. However, the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disorders within the global burden of disease2 has given the desire to understand and treat atherosclerosis ever greater impetus. Animal models have an important part to play in this, in two main regards: increasing our understanding of the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and developing new treatments for the disease. This chapter takes the view that most of the atherosclerosis research done in animal models until now has served the first purpose well, but the second rather poorly. To support this contention, it will be necessary to consider how atherosclerosis starts and develops.
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Acknowledgments
The author is grateful to Dr. Jason Johnson for permission to reproduce the figures, for useful scientific discussions, and for critical reading of the manuscript.
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Jackson, C., Benbow, U., Bond, A., Galley, D., Schwartz, C. (2009). Animal Models of Atherosclerosis. In: Abraham, D., Clive, H., Dashwood, M., Coghlan, G. (eds) Advances in Vascular Medicine. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-637-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-637-3_4
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