Hormonal Regulation of Normal Vascular Tone in Males

Hormonal regulation of normal vascular tone in males.

The presence of steroid hormone receptors in the vasculature of male animals has been recognized for more than two decades,1,2 and the ability of vascular estrogen receptors (ERs) to activate gene expression in vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells from both sexes is now well established.3 We know now that normal ER function is required for skeletal development in the human male,4 male f...

Circadian variation in vascular tone and endothelial cell function in normal males.

The existence of circadian rhythms in the time of onset of acute cardiovascular events has been described previously. This report describes the circadian variation in endothelial cell products, such as nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels, and endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilation in normal males. Plasma ET-1 and NO were measured every 4 h in nine subjects (20-41 years...

Endothelial regulation of vascular tone.

Astrocyte regulation of cerebral vascular tone.

Cerebral blood flow is controlled by two crucial processes, cerebral autoregulation (CA) and neurovascular coupling (NVC) or functional hyperemia. Whereas CA ensures constant blood flow over a wide range of systemic pressures, NVC ensures rapid spatial and temporal increases in cerebral blood flow in response to neuronal activation. The focus of this review is to discuss the cellular mechanisms...

Regulation of vascular tone, molecular mechanisms.

V ASCULAR tone, a state of maintained contraction of the smooth muscle in the vessel wall, is the process by which the blood vessel carries out its physiologic functions, its pharmacologic responses, and its pathologic changes. Current research directed at an understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate vascular tone is progressing at a rapid rate. The state of this art was surveyed ...