Vascular calcification in chronic kidney disease: not all arteries are created equal.

Cardiovascular calcifications are associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. Different regions of the arterial tree show a variable susceptibility to cardiovascular calcification. O'Neill and Adams investigated breast arteries with vascular calcification in chronic kidney disease patients. They found no evidence for osteogenic transdifferentiation or apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells in these arteries, suggesting that the pathogenesis of medial calcification differs between arterial regions.