Atherosclerosis revisited from a clinical perspective: still an inflammatory disease?

Compelling experimental results have substantiated the immune-driven inflammatory nature of atherosclerosis. Most of the scientific advances over the past decades have been achieved by relying on transgenic animal models that have been employed with increasing levels of sophistication. However, recent failures in translating various anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies for use in humans might raise some skepticism with regards to an inflammatory causality underlying human atherosclerosis. By applying a dialectical approach, this Perspective aims to challenge and deduce the nature of atherosclerosis by reviewing results exclusively derived from human studies and recent clinical trials, as "things may not always be, what they appear".