BACKGROUND/AIMS The baroreflex pathway has a vascular and a neural segment, both being modulated by variations in peripheral blood pressure (BP). Besides overall baroreceptor sensitivity (BRS), defined as the spectral relationship between changes in peripheral BP and R-R interval within the frequency band of 0.05-0.15 Hz, vascular and neural segment contributions to the overall BRS can be disti...

In this paper, we investigate essential mechanical properties and cell behaviors of the scaffolds fabricated by rolling polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) electrospinning (ES) films for small-diameter vascular grafts (inner diameter < 6 mm). The newly developed strategy can be used to fabricate small diameter vascular grafts with or without pre-seeded cells, which are two main branches for smal...

BACKGROUND The development of a suitable extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold is the first step in vascular tissue engineering (VTE). Synthetic vascular grafts are available as an alternative to autologous vessels in large-diameter arteries (>8 mm) and medium-diameter arteries (6-8 mm). In small-diameter vessels (<6 mm), synthetic vascular grafts are of limited use due to poor patency rates. Com...

Noninvasive vascular function measurement plays an important role in detecting early stages of atherosclerosis and in evaluating therapeutic responses. In this regard, recently, new vascular function measurements have been developed. These new measurements have been used to evaluate vascular function in coronary arteries, large aortic arteries, or peripheral arteries. Increasing vascular diamet...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent angiogenic factor in solid tumors. However, its role in angiogenesis in pituitary adenoma is controversial. Angiogenesis in solid tumors including pituitary adenoma is commonly evaluated by microvascular density (MVD). Here, we evaluated MVD and the role of VEGF in vascular architecture in 51 pituitary adenomas (24 nonfunctioning, 13 prolact...

Chronic hypertension impairs dilatation of cerebral arterioles. Impairment of dilatation generally has been attributed to hypertrophy of the vessel wall with encroachment on the vascular lumen. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that a reduction in external diameter may contribute to encroachment on the vascular lumen during chronic hypertension. We examined 10-12-month-old, anesthetized W...

Transient changes in arterial diameter in response to transient ischemia-induced changes in arterial blood velocity have been used as an index of vascular health. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between blood velocity and diameter in the brachial artery by different methods of increasing blood velocity. Acute cigarette smoking was used with otherwise healthy young oc...