Introduction: The cartilage and bone metaplasia occurring in both the heart and blood vessels, are the result of risk factors or chronic diseases that gradually adversely affect the performance of a person in society; however, clinical signs are reversible in early and intermediate stages of alterations.
Objective: To establish how the molecular mechanisms underlying the increased vascular metaplastic changes and possible aspects of treatment and prevention.
Materials and methods: A systematic review was performed by searching for articles indexed in PubMed, Scopus and Science Direct data from 1995 to 2015. The MeSH descriptors used were metaplasia and vascular calcification, which terms associated were molecular mechanisms, condrogenic and osteogenic.
Results and discussion: Multiple factors influence the metaplastic change, especially the pro-inflammatory associated with vascular oxidation and the presence of free radicals; this development is reversible by treatment with antioxidants and changes in lifestyle and secondary prevention as there is a diagnosis of chronic degenerative disease.
Conclusion: The literature evidences that factors that reduce the tissue oxidative stress and promote the maintenance of vascular phenotype are protective and / or reducing the osteochondral metaplastic formations.