Fig. 1.

The physiological and pathological oscillation of the adaptive immune response in cardiovascular disease is not fully understood. Response to a trigger, e.g., endothelial injury, myocyte death, or vascular injury/stress, initiates activation of the immune response, i.e., monocytes/macrophages, T cells, and B cells. Normal physiological response would be to dampen/resolve inflammation after the clearance of the trigger. A failure to initiate the adaptive immune response is what leads to the chronic inflammatory state, often resulting in cardiovascular pathology such as atherosclerosis, heart failure, and hypertension.