Elastin-laminin receptor and abdominal aortic aneurysms. New subject to study? A review.

Abdominal aortic aneurysms and their management remain a significant health problem that is likely to assume greater importance with the expansion of the elderly population. Elastin fibres degradation and extracellular matrix remodelling seems to be the basic process in aneurysm formation. Recent investigations revealed the principal role of elastin-laminin receptor in extracellular matrix remodelling in aging and atherosclerosis. The correlation between events observed in animal aneurysm models, human aneurysms and in experiments on elastin-laminin receptor properties was discussed to propose the hypothesis about the role of elastin peptides and elastin-laminin receptor in aortic aneurysm formation.