The endothelium is a key player in the vascular response to acute mental stress

This editorial refers to ‘Acute mental stress drives vascular inflammation and promotes plaque destabilization in mouse atherosclerosis’, by J. Hinterdobler et al., https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab371. A role for mental stress (MS) as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to emerge. Previous studies demonstrated that acute MS is associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI), sudden cardiac death, and stroke, and may trigger events in individuals with a high pre-existing atherosclerotic plaque burden.1 However, less is known about the underlying mechanisms of this relationship, and therefore what treatments could be harnessed to reduce MS-related risk. Hinterdobler et al.2 have made a valuable contribution to our understanding of the mechanisms that relate acute MS to CVD events. In their study, published in this issue of the European Heart Journal, the authors demonstrated rapid depletion of peripherally circulating leucocytes from the blood of humans and...