The protective effects of estrogen in the cardiovascular system result from both systemic effects and direct actions of the hormone on the vasculature. Two estrogen receptors have been identified, ERalpha and ERbeta. We demonstrated previously that estrogen inhibits the response to vascular injury in both wild-type and ERalpha-deficient mice, and that ERbeta is expressed in the blood vessels of...

Vascular stretch injury is associated with blunt trauma, vascular surgical procedures, and harvest of human saphenous vein for use in vascular bypass grafting. A model of subfailure overstretch in rat abdominal aorta was developed to characterize surgical vascular stretch injury. Longitudinal stretch of rat aorta was characterized ex vivo. Stretch to the haptic endpoint, where the tissues would...

Case study: This report details an axillary artery injury associated with an anterior glenohumeral dislocation. The patient was initially evaluated at an outside hospital where the vascular injury was not immediately identified, and then was subsequently transferred to our institution where he underwent bypass grafting without significant sequela. Conclusion: Although rare, clinicians should ac...

Worldwide, spinal cord injury (SCI) affects around 500,000 people each year and results in significant morbidity. The primary insult to the occurs at time of initial injury, which may result from a contusion, laceration or more rarely transection. Secondary damage SCI is insidious subacute; it combination an inflammatory response, vascular changes ionic dysregulation. Early clinical interventio...

The two known estrogen receptors, ERa and ERb, mediate the effects of estrogen in all target tissues, including blood vessels. We have shown previously that estrogen inhibits vascular injury response to the same extent in female wild-type (WT), ERa knockout (ERaKOCH), and ERb knockout (ERbKOCH) mice. We generated mice harboring disruptions of both ERa and ERb genes (ERa,bKOCH) by breeding and s...

BACKGROUND The mechanism and pattern of vascular injury vary between different populations. The commonest mechanism of vascular injury in civilian practice is road traffic collisions. We aimed to prospectively study the incidence, detailed mechanism and anatomical distribution of hospitalized vascular trauma patients following road traffic collisions in a high-income developing country. METHO...

BACKGROUND Inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1 beta and IL-18 play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis and restenosis. Apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC) is an adaptor protein that regulates caspase-1-dependent IL-1 beta and IL-18 generation; however, the role of ASC in vascular injury remains undefined. Here, ...

Phenotypic switching of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) plays a key role in vascular proliferative diseases. We previously showed that Krüppel-like factor 4 (Klf4) suppressed SMC differentiation markers in cultured SMCs. Here, we derive mice deficient for Klf4 by conditional gene ablation and analyze their vascular phenotype following carotid injury. Klf4 expression was rapidly induced in SMCs of co...

Abnormal increases in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in the intimal region after a vascular injury is a key event in developing neointimal hyperplasia. To maintain vascular function, proliferation and apoptosis of VSMCs is tightly controlled during vascular remodeling. NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1) system, a key component of the oxidative stress...