Stranded cells fuel plaques

摘要

One contributor to the build-up of fatty plaques in artery walls is a signalling protein that blocks the emigration of a major plaque constituent from the deposits. Fat-laden white blood cells called macrophages are abundant in atherosclerotic plaques. Kathryn Moore at New York University and her colleagues found that these cells produce netrin-1, a protein that can guide the migration of white blood cells and the growing tips of neurons. But expression of netrin-1 in plaques blocked macrophage responses to chemical cues that would normally direct them out of the plaques.