Increasing evidence suggests that systemic low-grade inflammation may be a driving force of cardiometabolic complications, such as vascular dysfunction, atherosclerosis and ischemic heart disease. Thus, we will investigate the role of inflammation in cardiovascular disease.

Vascular reconstruction surgeries usually require a small piece of the vessel wall to be excised. The excised vessel is generally discarded as medical waste: however, for patients participating in the study, the excised tissue will be placed in saline and collected for research use.

Tissue collected from individuals undergoing vascular surgery associated with peripheral arterial diseases, aneurysm and/or other manifestations of atherosclerosis, vascular tissue will be cultured ex vivo in the presence or absence of therapeutic agents, to determine if these attenuate the inflammation associated with the atherosclerotic phenotype. Furthermore, the protocol will also be carried out using vascular tissue from control patients, which have undergone vascular surgery that is not associated with vascular disease (e.g. knee replacement surgery, trauma, etc).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patient is planned to undergo vascular surgery.
• Signed informed consent has been obtained from the patient.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient has difficulty to understand information.
• Patients under 18 years of age.
• Patients participating in any drug-related study.

Consecutive patients planned for vascular reconstruction surgery at our center.