Prevention of atherosclerosis: the role of special diets and functional foods.

The importance of diet for prevention of atherosclerosis is supported by numerous studies. However, to date, no rigorous method exists to assess its impact. Dietary ingredients and supplements and functional foods receive special attention as promising components in prevention of atherosclerosis. In this review, we summarize the results of recent studies that demonstrate the direct and indirect effects of functional foods and dietary components on the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. We discuss the possible effects of different diets on the pathological mechanisms at cellular and molecular level, as well as epidemiological and clinical observations.

Atherosclerosis prevention: the role of special diets and functional food.

Accumulating evidence highlight the importance of diet in the pathogenesis as well as prevention of atherosclerosis. In this review, we summarize the results of recent studies that demonstrate direct and indirect effects if functional foods and their analogues in prevention of initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. We discuss the epidemiological and clinical observations of such diets and dicuss their effects on the pathological mechanisms that drive atherosclerosis at cellular and molecular level.

The role of mitochondria in cardiovascular diseases related to atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a complex disorder that involves several mechanisms of pathogenesis tightly related to each other: lipid accumulation, inflammation and structural changes in the arterial wall. The main source of lipids accumulating in the arterial wall is low-density lipoprotein (LDL) atherogenically modified by desialylation or oxidation. Oxidized LDL can be produced as a result of enhanced generation of reactive oxygen species by mitochondria during oxidative stress. Mitochondrial dysfunction was found to be involved in every aspect of atherosclerosis, and is currently evaluated as a potential point of therapeutic intervention. In particular, atherosclerosis-associated inflammation and its link to mitochondrial dysfunction appear to be interesting, since mitochondria not only trigger the response to external signals, but also can act as pro-inflammatory agents themselves. In this regard, atherosclerosis is potentially an autoimmune disease. In this review, we summarize recent insights on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in atherogenesis and discuss the significance of mitochondria for understanding of molecular basis of cardiovascular diseases.