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Cadmium and cardiovascular diseases: cell biology, pathophysiology, and epidemiological relevance

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Abstract

Today cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the killer number one world wide. In 2004 an estimated 17.1 million people died due to CVDs and this number will further increase to an estimated 23.6 million by 2030. Importantly, currently known risk factors, like hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia, can only be made responsible for about 50–75% of all CVDs, highlighting the urgent need to search for and define new CVD risk factors. Cadmium (Cd) was shown to have the potential to serve as one such novel risk factor, as it was demonstrated—in vitro, in animal studies, and in human studies—that Cd causes atherosclerosis (the basis of most CVDs). Herein, we discuss the molecular and cellular biological effects of Cd in the cardiovascular system; we present concepts on the pathophysiology of Cd-caused atherosclerosis, and provide data that indicate an epidemiological relevance of Cd as a risk factor for CVDs.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Mrs. Rajam Csordas-Iyer for correction of the English language. This project was supported by the Austrian National Bank (Project # 12697 to D.B.).

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  1. Cardiothoracic Surgery, Research Laboratories, Department of Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Barbara Messner & David Bernhard

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  1. Barbara Messner
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  2. David Bernhard
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Correspondence to David Bernhard.

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Messner, B., Bernhard, D. Cadmium and cardiovascular diseases: cell biology, pathophysiology, and epidemiological relevance. Biometals 23, 811–822 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-010-9314-4

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