Mapping of immune responses in patients with peripheral arterial disease

People with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is largely affected by the disease in their daily life as it often causes walking impairment, loss of independence, rest pain or ulcers. It may even cause gangrene which may lead to amputation. PAD is a common manifestation of atherosclerosis, affecting arteries in the leg, with a prevalence of up to 20% among people over 60 years old in Sweden. This disease leads to an overall decline in quality of life in patients. PAD patients have an increased cardiovascular disease mortality and morbidity and contribute to healthcare costs' burden much higher compared to coronary artery disease (CAD). Previous investigations focused mainly on atherosclerosis in CAD, however, despite its high prevalence PAD remains under diagnosed and the role of immune cells in PAD pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an extended research on PAD patients to get a better understanding of the disease’s pathophysiology and to define new intervention strategies. The overall goal of this project is to gain a deeper understanding of immune responses and to define novel biomarkers in peripheral arterial disease. Using high dimensional flow cytometry, cellular, molecular and physiological approaches, we are characterising immunophenotype and functional profilie of immune cells in peripheral blood and atherosclerotic lesions and evaluating microvascular status in PAD patients. Defining the process in pathophysiology linking of immune responses in atherosclerosis development in PAD could lead to identifying potential novel biomarkers and intervention strategies involving pharmacological approaches to improve health and quality of life of PAD patients.