Arterial Calcium Overload: A Cardinal Element in the Development of Arteriosclerosis and Vasoprotection with Calcium Antagonists

At present, the antiarteriosclerotic efficacy of calcium (Ca) antagonists, first described in 1971 [1] and subsequently analyzed in a multitude of experimental models on rats by Fleckenstein and coworkers [2–6], is increasingly gaining interest. It is a well-known fact that in arterial walls that are altered by sclerotic processes, two main constituents accumulate: lipids (particularly cholesterol) and Ca. However, the accumulation of lipids has long been incriminated as the primordial pathogenic factor, whereas the concomitant arterial Ca overload was considered a phenomenon of secondary importance. This is rather puzzling, because in 1913, the same year as Anitschkow [7] first produced atheromatous lesions in cholesterol-fed rabbits, Katase [8] depicted calcific incrustation and subsequent destruction of the internal elastic membrane in the arterial walls of guinea pigs and rabbits injected with soluble calcium salts. But Anitschkow’s cholesterol-fed rabbits overshadowed Katase’s observations completely.