The risk of suffering from cardiovascular events as myocardial infarction and stroke is increased for individuals with type 2-diabetes. These complications are commonly caused by ruptures of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques, located in the large arteries. The cause of the increased risk to suffer from a vulnerable plaque rupture among individuals with type 2-diabetes remains unknown.

We recently showed that atherosclerotic plaques from individuals with type 2-diabetes have signs of an impaired arterial tissue repair as a potential cause of the high risk for a plaque rupture.

We aim to identify if the impaired tissue repair might be caused by a defect inflammatory resolution and clearance of dead cells, two important steps in tissue healing and regeneration.

By characterizing the role of these processes in the arterial wall we further aim to assess if they might be possible to trace in blood as biomarkers or by imaging to identify high risk individuals.