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[摘要] It is well known that smoking increases the risk of developing an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a dilatation of the body’s main artery in the abdomen, which can be life-threatening. In his article, David Tilson discusses the mechanisms through which smoking causes aneurysm development, which are not yet fully understood. The hypothesis he discusses is that the destruction of the vessel wall is at least partly caused by an autoimmune process, which means that the body’s immune system destroys its own cells. The nitric oxide in tobacco smoke can make changes to a specific molecule in the vessel wall, making these molecules more recognizable for the body’s immune system, which causes inflammation and vessel wall destruction. Several scientific findings support this theory, but the author stresses that there might be other mechanisms by which smoking promotes aneurysm development as well.