Several processes including endothelial angiogenesis, vascular neointimal lesion formation, vascular
inflammation process, lipoprotein metabolism, and hypertension are critically involved in atherosclerosis. This
chapter aims to introduce the role of miRNAs in vascular inflammation process. Atherosclerosis is now widely
accepted to be an inflammatory disease, characterized by degenerative as well as proliferative changes and
extracellular accumulation of lipid and cholesterol, in which an ongoing inflammatory reaction plays an important
role in both initiation and progression/destabilization, converting a chronic process into an acute disorder. In early
atheromotous plaques, inflammatory macrophages strive to alleviate the subendothelial accumulation of modified
lipoproteins carrying cholesterol esters. Consequently, the further recruitment and migration of cells induce
chronic inflammation. To date, only a few miRNAs have been shown to be involved in the vascular inflammation
process. These include miR-126 in regulating adhesion molecules, and miR-155 and miR-125a in regulating
inflammatory cytokine.
