Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2026 Jan 22. doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.125.323130. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Despite major advances in acute reperfusion therapies, patients surviving ischemic stroke or myocardial infarction remain at high risk for long-term cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities. Emerging evidence identifies trained immunity, the long-lasting reprogramming of innate immune progenitors, as a central driver of this interorgan communication. Sterile insults such as stroke or myocardial infarction imprint persistent inflammatory memory via long-lasting reprogramming of bone marrow hematopoietic progenitors, biasing myelopoiesis and generating proinflammatory monocytes that target distant organs. This central trained immunity explains how a single ischemic event can precipitate cardiac dysfunction, accelerate atherosclerosis, or exacerbate metabolic disease, thereby contributing to multimorbidity in vascular patients. Understanding these systemic immune circuits provides a conceptual framework for developing interventions that interrupt maladaptive inflammatory memory. Finally, we discuss emerging therapeutic strategies to prevent maladaptive innate immune memory and mitigate chronic vascular inflammation and multimorbidity.
PMID:41568457 | DOI:10.1161/ATVBAHA.125.323130