Versican May Increase Cellular Senescence and Calcification in the Blood Vessels of Hyperglycemic Patients

I found this paper quite intriguing, as it links together a number of themes in vascular aging and the similar forms of vascular dysfunction seen in metabolic syndrome and diabetes. The molecular damage of aging in blood vessel walls causes stiffness of blood vessels, which in turn causes hypertension. This is one of the more important means by which low level biochemical damage is translated to high level structural damage to tissues, as raised blood pressure causes all sorts of harm. The damage that leads to vascular stiffness includes (a) cross-linking, in which sugary metabolic byproducts form links between molecules of the extracellular matrix, impeding its elasticity, (b) calcification, in which cells begin to inappropriately deposit calcium into the extracellular matrix, also degrading elasticity, and (c) failure of the vascular smooth muscle cells to perform appropriately when constricting or dilating blood vessels. This last item has a number of poorly mapped underlying causes, but chronic inflammation appears to be a contributing issue. Chronic inflammation is also implicated in calcification. Chronic inflammation is one of the downstream consequences of cellular senescence, and there is evidence for the presence of senescent cells to be involved in calcification in blood vessel walls. So these items are already quite well connected together. The paper here closes the loop further by finding a form of intracellular signaling that is likely present in hypergly...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs