Dr. Young-Mi Park, MD., a cell biologist at Cleveland Clinic, was successful in researching the role of oxidant stress and inflammation on the pathogenesis, or disease-causing mechanisms of artherosclerosis.  It was known that fat laden inflammatory cells called foam-cell macrophages did trigger inflammation when they became trapped beneath the lining of blood vessels. Dr. Park’s research wanted to know why the cells could become trapped and how they could be released from their endothelial bondage. Freeing the cells would reverse the inflammation resulting from the bondage.

Dr. Park’s team decided that the best approach to solving the bondage problem was to test antioxidants known to prevent the foam cells from migrating into the endothelial lining and their ability to release cells already present in the endothelial lining. Read the rest of this entry »