Cardiovascular disease is the world’s number 1 killer. The cardiovascular system helps to pump blood throughout the human body and maintain a systemic balance. However, medial vascular calcification results when this system becomes off balance, such as in cases of high blood pressure leading to hypertension. Many factors are involved in this process, but the most important is the vascular smooth muscle cell phenotypic switch to osteoblast-like cells. When vascular smooth muscle cells are subject to mechanical stimuli, mechanotransduction occurs, causing an intracellular signaling cascade leading to a phenotypic switch associated with the Wnt signaling pathway and osteogenic markers. There is a lack of understanding of the defined linkages of pathways that lead to the development of the osteoblast-like cell type. Therefore, examining human aortic smooth muscle cells under hypertensive conditions could decrease the prevalence of cardiovascular disease worldwide.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-7277 |
| Date | 13 August 2024 |
| Creators | Moon, Jessica |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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