Atherosclerosis in 2012: what is new?

Recently, two important issues concerning atherogensis have been raised: first – the role of hemostasis in the progression of atherosclerosis, and second – how the results of experimental animal studies can be translated into humans. There is no direct clinical evidence for the role of the coagulation system in the progression of atherosclerosis, but ample experimental data indicate that platelets and coagulation factors have an important role in the progression of both atherosclerosis and thromboembolism. A new scientific approach is thus needed to assess the actual effect of the hemostatic system on molecular and cellular responses in the vasculature. Although experimental studies helped to unravel numerous factors underlying the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis, there is still a significant gap in the translation of the experimental results to the clinic, and this gap needs to bridged to achieve reliable data from scientific research. Direct translation of the results from mouse studies to human is problematic. Clinical trials should be used more often as an early scientific probe, not just as a pathway to the commercialization of pharmaceuticals or for evaluating comparative efficacy of the agents in clinical use.