Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0085580 (essential hypertension)
 14,686 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Resistance artery narrowing and stiffening are key elements in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension, but their origin is not completely understood. In mesenteric resistance arteries (MRA) from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), we have shown that inward remodeling is associated with abnormal elastic fiber organization, leading to smaller fenestrae in the internal elastic lamina. Our current aim is to determine whether this alteration is an early event that precedes vessel narrowing, or if elastic fiber reorganization in SHR arteries occurs because of the remodeling process itself. Using MRA from 10-day-old, 30-day-old, and 6-mo-old SHR and normotensive Wistar Kyoto rats, we investigated the time course of the development of structural and mechanical alterations (pressure myography), elastic fiber organization (confocal microscopy), and amount of elastin (radioimmunoassay for desmosine) and collagen (picrosirius red). SHR MRA had an impairment of fenestrae enlargement during the first month of life. In 30-day-old SHR, smaller fenestrae and more packed elastic fibers in the internal elastic lamina were paralleled by increased wall stiffness. Collagen and elastin levels were unaltered at this age. MRA from 6-mo-old SHR also had smaller fenestrae and a denser network of adventitial elastic fibers, accompanied by increased collagen content and vessel narrowing. At this age, elastase digestion was less effective in SHR MRA, suggesting a lower susceptibility of elastic fibers to enzymatic degradation. These data suggest that abnormal elastic fiber deposition in SHR increases resistance artery stiffness at an early age, which might participate in vessel narrowing later in life.
 ...
PMID:Postnatal alterations in elastic fiber organization precede resistance artery narrowing in SHR. 1656 5

The effect of cobalt on the cardiovascular system is one of many aspects of cobalt metabolism in humans. Elastin and collagen are the main proteins of the vascular wall. The aims of this study were: 1) to determine serum cobalt concentrations in children with hypertension; and 2) to study the correlation between serum cobalt and some biological markers of the extracellular matrix of the vascular wall, i.e., anti-elastin and anti-collagen type IV antibodies. Patients showed statistically significant higher levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and significantly lower serum cobalt concentrations, than controls. Children with hypertension showed significantly higher levels of total cholesterol (P = 0.0003) and collagen type IV IgM (P = 0.04). Collagen type IV IgG levels (P = 0.027) were lower than in controls. Serum cobalt in patients showed a correlation with systolic blood pressure (r = -0.44, P = 0.05), elastin IgM (r = 0.60, P = 0.007), and collagen type IV IgG (r = -0.46, P = 0.04). Our data suggest the existence of a correlation between changes in levels of serum cobalt, total cholesterol, anti-collagen type IV antibodies, and essential hypertension in children. This is the first study of serum cobalt in children with essential hypertension.
 ...
PMID:Serum cobalt in children with essential hypertension. 1703 79