Smooth muscle tone alters arterial stiffness: the importance of the extracellular matrix to vascular smooth muscle stiffness ratio

Conclusion: Based on retrospective analysis of four clinical studies, we propose a simple hypothesis for the role of VSM tone on arterial stiffness: increased VSM tone increases arterial stiffness when VSM is stiffer than ECM and decreases arterial stiffness when ECM is stiffer than VSM. This hypothesis and the methods used in this study could have important implications for understanding arterial physiology in both hypertension and cardiovascular disease and deserve further exploration.
Source: Journal of Hypertension - Category: Cardiology Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research