This Research Topic is part of the Insights in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine series. Following the success of the inaugural series, Frontiers has organized a series of Research Topics to highlight the latest advancements in research across the field of cardiovascular medicine, with articles from the members of our accomplished Editorial Boards. This editorial initiative of particular relevance, led by Professor Masanori Aikawa, Specialty Chief Editor of the Atherosclerosis and Vascular Medicine section, is focused on new insights, novel developments, current challenges, latest discoveries, recent advances, and future perspectives in the field of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2011 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Atherosclerosis. The editors have built Atherosclerosis: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2011 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Atherosclerosis in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Atherosclerosis: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2011 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

A vast literature has been concerned with arteriosclerosis and yet, many aspects of pathogenesis and of the mechanism of development of the arteriosclerotic vascular lesion remain only poorly understood. In recent years, our knowledge of the earliest stages of arteriosclerosis have greatly improved. By now, we have learned to relate morphologic changes to disturbances in function. It has been of particular impor tance that components of the arterial wall could be analyzed in regard to dysfunction, for example, in the endothelium or the vascular smooth muscle. The interaction of the different morphological components of the vascular wall could thus be much bet ter understood. Likewise, the interaction between the arterial wall and the flowing blood could be much better described, including the intimate relationship between platelets and the endothelium, the coagulation system and the endothelium, the granulocytes and the endothelial cell layer, as well as processes of migration of blood cells into the subendothelial space. The recognition of functional and morphological disturbance has attained clinical significance not only because the arteriosclerotic diseases have quantitatively reached the dimensions of an epidemic, that is, of a magnitude never been witnessed. It is also because of the development of new drugs that interfere with the atherogenic process and thereby prevent the development of the disease or halt its progression. It is also becoming increasingly possible to inhibit the occurrence of complications in existing arteriosclerotic lesions in manifest disease, i. e.

Phagocytosis, as an innate immune defense mechanism, is the first process to respond to pathogens. It is also one of the initiating branches of an adaptive immune response. This book provides a comprehensive overview of phagocytosis and related cells in the immune response. It presents the basics of phagocytosis as well as discusses management and therapeutic strategies for infections.