Latest Endothelium Stories

Heart disease and approximately half of all strokes are the results of advanced atherosclerosis with damaged endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels. In 2009, the direct and indirect annual cost of heart disease and stroke was approximately $312.6 billion. Projections are for the total cost of heart disease to increase from $523 to $1.126 billion from 2013 to 2030. And by 2030, it is expected that there will be more than 148 million of the US population would have heart disease....

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online What you fill your coffee cup with every morning could be the secret to enjoying a long life, according to new research appearing in an upcoming edition of the journal Vascular Medicine. Gerasimos Siasos, a professor at the University of Athens Medical School, and colleagues set out to discover the secrets of the inhabitants of the Greek island Ikaria – home to the highest rates of longevity in the world. While only 0.1 percent...

Transfusion of donated blood more than three weeks old results in impaired blood vessel function, a new study of hospital patients shows. Blood banks now consider six weeks to be the maximum permitted storage time of blood for use in transfusion, but recent studies have suggested transfusing blood stored for more than a few weeks has adverse effects in patients undergoing cardiac surgery or critical care. The new finding suggests a mechanism explaining why older blood might be...

LMU researchers led by Christian Weber have, for the first time, elucidated how cells that promote the development of atherosclerosis find their way to the blood vessel wall, where they stimulate the formation of obstructive deposits. Atherosclerosis is one of the commonest causes of death in modern societies. The condition is characterized by the build-up of fatty deposits called atherosclerotic plaques on the inner surfaces of arteries, which restrict, and may eventually cut off, blood...

Rice University [ Watch The Video ] By thinking of cells as programmable robots, researchers at Rice University hope to someday direct how they grow into the tiny blood vessels that feed the brain and help people regain functions lost to stroke and disease. Rice bioengineer Amina Qutub and her colleagues simulate patterns of microvasculature cell growth and compare the results with real networks grown in their lab. Eventually, they want to develop the ability to control the way...

Discovery points to roles of diaphragms in the maintenance of blood plasma composition and survival: -PV1 expression in vascular endothelium is required for survival -PV1 is required for the formation of stomatal and fenestral diaphragms -Lack of diaphragms in fenestrated endothelia causes vascular leak of plasma proteins -Vascular leak results in severe hypoproteinemia and hypertriglyceridemia Dartmouth scientists have demonstrated the importance of the gene Plvap and the structures...

Johns Hopkins Medicine Experiments also suggest approaches to treating blood vessel disorders in the eye Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have shed light on the activity of a protein pair found in cells that form the walls of blood vessels in the brain and retina, experiments that could lead to therapeutic control of the blood-brain barrier and of blood vessel growth in the eye. Their work reveals a dual role for the protein pair, called Norrin/Frizzled-4, in managing the...

Muscle cells on outside of blood vessels wrongly accused for instigating lung disease It turns out the muscle cells on the outside of blood vessels have been wrongly accused for instigating lung disease. New research shows that while these muscle cells are responsible for constricting or dilating the blood vessels, they are not responsible for sensing the amount of oxygen that gets to the lungs. That message comes from the endothelial cells – special cells that line the blood vessels –...

Researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, believe they have discovered stem cells that play a decisive role in new blood vessel growth. If researchers learn to isolate and efficiently produce these stem cells found in blood vessel walls, the cells offer new opportunities in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and many other diseases. The study will be published in the PLOS Biology journal on 16 October 2012. The growth of new blood vessels, also known as...

HOBOKEN, N.J., June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The body's first line of defense against coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease, are endothelial cells. These cells serve as the "traffic cop" for blood flow, directing blood to the appropriate area of the body such as the heart, brain, muscles or digestive system to support the body's actions. A study published in the January 2012 issue of European Heart Journal found that natural supplement Pycnogenol(®)...