HEALTH : Body’s Defenses Tied to Seizures

The body’s own defenses against disease can go awry and attack proteins that carry cholesterol through the body, triggering the dangerous buildup of artery-clogging deposits that causes heart attacks, researchers reported today.

Dr. William Hollander of Boston University said his latest research supports the idea, which he pioneered two decades ago, that hardening of the arteries is an autoimmune disease--the body’s misguided destruction of itself.

“I would say that our findings indicate that immune factors play a key role in the formation of the fibrous lesions that are the fundamental cause of heart attacks and strokes,” Hollander said.

Hollander’s theory has become a hot topic of research in recent years as doctors try to identify the forces that cause the blood vessels to fill up with fatty deposits like rust-encrusted pipes. This process, which doctors call atherosclerosis, results in a heart attack or stroke if a clot accidentally squeezes off the flow of blood entirely.