Pressure-Induced Endothelial Dysfunction

Is upregulation of local generation of angiotensin II in arteries causing the loss of endothelium-dependent dilation in response to short-term increases in blood pressure? Associate Editor Nancy Kanagy (University of New Mexico) interviews lead author Nicholas Flavahan (Johns Hopkins University) and content expert Gregory Fink (Michigan State University) about the insightful work by Flavahan and colleagues that seeks to disentangle the complicated cause-and-effect relationship between the renin-angiotensin system and high blood pressure. So what’s the bottom line? Are acute, however brief, increases in blood pressure bad for our arteries? Listen and learn.

Yingzi Zhao, Sheila Flavahan, Susan W. Leung, Aimin Xu, Paul M. Vanhoutte, Nicholas A. Flavahan Elevated pressure causes endothelial dysfunction in mouse carotid arteries by increasing local angiotensin signaling Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published February 15, 2015. DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00775.2014.