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Mycophenolate Mofetil and Atherosclerosis
Author(s) -
GIBSON WILLIAM THOMAS,
HAYDEN MICHAEL REUBEN
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1423.023
Subject(s) - mycophenolate , azathioprine , hyperlipidemia , medicine , thickening , mycophenolic acid , cardiac allograft vasculopathy , heart transplantation , transplantation , disease , endocrinology , diabetes mellitus , chemistry , polymer science
: The immunosuppressive agent mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) has beneficial effects in cardiac transplant patients beyond the suppression of tissue rejection. Patients with regimens containing MMF experience diminished intimal thickening and cardiac allograft vasculopathy compared to patients treated with azathioprine. Studies have shown that diet‐induced atherosclerosis (a related vasculopathy) is a chronic inflammatory process, and so MMF has also been used to reduce atherosclerosis in a rabbit model of hyperlipidemia. These data hold out the intriguing possibility that MMF might be a viable primary or secondary preventive agent in people at significant risk for atherosclerosis.