Researchers here note a process by which the hardening of heart valves, known as aortic valve stenosis, accelerates in its later stages. The condition causes greater sheer stress in blood flow, which in turn causes immune cells in the bloodstream to become more inflammatory. The resulting greater chronic inflammation in heart tissue accelerates the mechanisms that cause stenosis. This hardening of tissue is due to calcification; a growing fraction of cells in the valves adopt behav…
Sheer Stress in the Aging Heart Makes Immune Cells Inflammatory, Accelerating Cardiovascular Disease
Researchers here note a process by which the hardening of heart valves, known as aortic valve stenosis, accelerates in its later stages. The condition causes greater sheer stress in blood flow, which in turn causes immune cells in the bloodstream to become more inflammatory. The resulting greater chronic inflammation in heart tissue accelerates the mechanisms that cause stenosis. This hardening of tissue is due to calcification; a growing fraction of cells in the valves adopt behav…