However, it is limited to modest spatial resolutions (e.g., 0.4 × 0.4 × 4 mm) that, while adequate to study atherosclerosis in medium to large arteries, are largely inadequate for small-caliber vessels such as human vein grafts (8).
Immunosenescence coincides with vascular aging during which the arterial wall undergoes dramatic structural changes and medium and large arteries lose their pliability and elasticity.
In medium and large arteries, atheromas and fibrosis are observed less often, resulting in stenosis.
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting medium and large arteries, resulting from a complex interaction between genotype and environmental factors including diet, which influences dyslipidemia.
The mutation of ENPP1 gene results in variable degrees of calcification and intimal fibrosis of medium and large arteries of cardiac and renal vascular system [ 9].
Specifically, a population of immune-sensing cells, vascular DCs, have been identified in the walls of medium and large arteries [ 17].
Arterial stiffness typically occurs in medium to large arteries and is due to degeneration of elastin fibres and deposition of collagen into the vascular wall [ 14].
As prototypic vascular components, they not only line the macrolumen of medium and large arteries, but also form the microvascular vasa vasorum tree.
Generalized arterial calcification of infancy (GACI; OMIM 208000) is an autosomal-recessive disorder that is characterized by the calcification of medium and large arteries in humans.
The absence of arterial calcifications in zebrafish embryos can probably be attributed to the morphological differences in the arteries of zebrafish embryos when compared with the medium and large arteries of human and mouse, which have multiple layers of vascular smooth muscle cells.
Aortic wall calcification and ossification with nodular wall formation have also been described [74] as well as aneurysm formation in the thoracic and abdominal aorta (5%% of cases) and vasculitis obliterans in medium-sized and large arteries [75, 76].
