Atherosclerosis and Alzheimer--diseases with a common cause? Inflammation, oxysterols, vasculature.

Background: Aging is accompanied by increasing vulnerability to pathologies such as atherosclerosis (ATH) and Alzheimer disease (AD). Are these different pathologies, or different presentations with a similar underlying pathoetiology?

Discussion: Both ATH and AD involve inflammation, macrophage infiltration, and occlusion of the vasculature. Allelic variants in common genes including APOE predispose to both diseases.