Abstract
Atherosclerosis remains the leading cause of death. It is a complex fibroproductive "reparative" inflammatory process, which takes place in the arterial wall.
The set of these processes is mainly caused by monocytes/macrophages, B and T lymphocytes, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells. The article describes the role of iron in individual steps of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, the second part summarises various clinical studies investigating the association between iron and the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.