There is no cure for hardening of the arteries, but a McGill University research team is trying to understand how it begins and what it is so a treatment can be found.
Lead researcher Marta Cerutti says they used a Canadian Light Source beamline on the University of Saskatchewan campus to figure out what types of minerals line the walls of arteries and where they situate.
Cerutti explains the deposits are calcium phosphates, like we would find in our bones.
There was a surprise in where they form.
Researchers had expected because the minerals are made of positive ions that they would bind with other charged ions, but Cerutti says, in most cases they formed on elastin which has no charge.
Elastin gives veins their elasticity.
The goal is to find a way to block the minerals from forming.
Both chronic kidney disease and diabetes are strongly associated with mineral deposits.