Targeting arterial stiffening to prevent incident hypertension and organ damage

The majority of adults aged 65 years or older have elevated blood pressure (BP). This dramatically increases cardiovascular (CV) risk (i.e. increased risk for heart, brain or kidney problems). There is a large amount of BP-lowering drugs available. Unfortunately, they rarely succeed to reduce longterm CV risk completely, indicating that there is more to it than lowering BP alone. Indeed, stiffening of the large arteries (e.g. the aorta) also increases CV risk. Arterial stiffening has long been considered a structural adaptation of the arteries to elevated BP. However, recent studies report the opposite, i.e. that arterial stiffness precedes the elevation of BP seen with aging. Moreover, it was found that patients with high BP who respond poorly to their treatment are those with a stiffer aorta. This indicates that treating arterial stiffening in addition to hypertension may result in a better outcome. This was also suggested in the most recent guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology. Little is known about the mechanisms that cause arterial stiffening with aging. Structural components are known to alter arterial stiffness. Although the details are unknown, active components of the arterial wall have been shown to play a role also. Here, we want to investigate how active components determine arterial stiffness. Understanding these mechanisms is crucial if we aim to improve health care management in patients with elevated arterial BP and arterial stiffness.

Keywords:HYPERTENSION

Disciplines:Systems biology, Cardiac and vascular medicine, Hematology, Laboratory medicine

Project type:Collaboration project