Mária Rašiová, Miriam Kozárová
Vascular calcifications (VC) are considered a form of extraskeletal ossification. They are induced by unbalanced state between inducers and inhibitors of calcification in the vessel wall in inflammatory, metabolic and genetic diseases. As a result of this failure, a cell of the vessel wall is transformed in an osteoblast-like cell. The transformed cell is capable of producing bone matrix and mineralization. The presence of markers of osteogenesis, osteoblast and chondrocyte transcription factors and all phases of endochondral ossification was documented in the vessel wall. The relationship between the degree of osteoporosis and VC is supposed, too. Regression of already established calcification is questionable in view of its extreme insolubility. The primary therapeutic measure in vascular calcification is to control the risk factors (hyperphosphatemia, blood tension, hyperlipidemia) and treatment of the underlying disease.