ABSTRACT
The arterial wall consists of an innermost endothelial layer sitting on a basement membrane, followed by the intimal connective tissue and a few smooth muscle cells (SMCs), the media, which is a muscular layer, and an outer connective tissue layer, the adventitia. Atherosclerotic lesions develop in the intima and, according to general belief, the earliest lesions are whitish cushion-like changes, so-called “fatty streaks”, that may later develop into advanced lesions, called atherosclerotic plaques (1).
