Atherosclerosis requires endothelial injury, oxidized lipoproteins, and an immune response.

“And the reason that there's no one single causal factor is you have to have this sort of perfect storm of endothelial injury. And that can be anything from smoking cigarettes will do that to high blood pressure will do that. You have to have a lipoprotein that can actually carry cholesterol and through that injury. So you have that injury, you can get her through that has to get oxidized and create an immune response that then has to lead to the formation of this plaque, which for reasons that aren't entirely clear, some rupture, some don't and kick off the epoxy problem.”