Bifurcation for a free boundary model of an atherosclerotic plaque formation in the presence of reverse cholesterol transport with Holling type III functional response.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the gradual formation of plaques due to lipid deposition on the inner walls of blood vessels, which can lead to narrowing, blockage, or rupture of the arteries, posing a significant risk to cardiovascular health. In this study, we study the bifurcation of a highly nonlinear and coupled model describing the early growth of atherosclerotic plaques with Holling type III functional response, involving low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, cytokines, pro-inflammatory macrophages, anti-inflammatory macrophages, and foam cells, with a free boundary separating the plaque from the blood flow region. We first prove the existence and uniqueness of radially symmetric steady-state solutions, and then establish a finite branch of symmetry-breaking steady-state solutions from the radially symmetric ones. This result helps us to understand the reason of plaque asymmetry in real life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]