The pathogenic mechanisms underlying diseases related to atherogenesis and inflammation are unified by the interactions between various cellular and molecular components and the endothelium. Among the unresolved issues in both atherogenesis and inflammation are understanding the cellular changes that either disrupt normal vascular homeostasis or that result in the inappropriate migration and activation of inflammatory cells. These two meetings are, thus, clearly unified by their focus on the role of the diversity of interactions between the blood vessel and various factors affecting it during normal and pathogenic states. These interactions include the affects of various growth mediators on vessel cell proliferation, the various cellular and molecular interactions involved with inflammation and resultant atherogenesis, the adhesion molecules involved with blood cell-endothelial interactions, and the role of vasoactive factors in endothelial cell function, to name a few. These two meetings will bring a large number of investigators from numerous fields together in one forum to discuss a diversity of topics. These discussions will not only result in the formulation of modified hypotheses, they will also result in the development of both new collaborations and potentially new therapeutic and diagnostic tools for the treatment of the large numbers of diseases associated with atherogenesis and inflammation.
