Extensive epidemiological, clinical, and experimental data indicate that physical exercise slows the progression of vascular disease and reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Physical inactivity is believed to be an independent risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. As such, regular exercise is rapidly gaining widespread adv...

Extensive epidemiological, clinical, and experimental data indicate that physical exercise slows the progression of vascular disease and reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Physical inactivity is believed to be an independent risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. As such, regular exercise is rapidly gaining widespread adv...

Efforts to eradicate cardiovascular disease (CVD) are progressing no faster than The Race for the Cure1 is in breast cancer. In the case of CVD, although therapies for the ravages of atherosclerosis continue to improve, the prevalence of disease is more than keeping pace. Recently, the World Health Organization has predicted that today’s 17 million deaths worldwide attributable to heart disease...

Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), an essential cofactor for diverse cellular processes, is present in almost every cell or tissue of higher organisms. BH4 has well-defined functions in terms of enzymatic activities (BH4 is a crucial cofactor for the aromatic amino acid hydroxylases and all isoforms of nitric oxide synthase [NOS]) but has other less-defined functions in cells. BH4 is a growth or prolif...

Heart morphogenesis is a complex process that involves orchestration of cardiac cell commitment, differentiation, proliferation, and migration. Much progress has been made toward understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate these events during normal development. However, the role of chromatin modification for heart development has received comparatively little attention, despite the fa...

What is the cause of Alzheimer’s disease? What is the treatment? Currently, there is no (clear) answer. But wait, perhaps NO (nitric oxide) is part of the answer. It is known that amyloidpeptides (A ), the major components of amyloid plaque in Alzheimer’s disease, produce endothelial dysfunction in aorta and cerebral blood vessels (Figure).1–4 In addition, cardiovascular risk factors and cerebr...

Experimental and clinic studies show that chronic hypertension leads to myocardial pathology and systolic and diastolic dysfunctions that frequently progress to heart failure.1 Elevated afterload causes cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, which alters myocardial energy metabolism by increasing glucose metabolism and impairing mitochondrial oxidative capacity, increasing the production of reactive oxygen...

A very large number of experimental and human studies independently link high dietary salt intake and aldosterone excess to the development and progression of end-organ damage. Observational and dietary interventional studies clearly establish high diet salt intake as an important contributor to the development of hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy, and proteinuria. Likewise, observational data ...

Vascular calcification is a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In atherosclerotic lesions, calcification is mainly found in the neointima of atheromatous plaques and has been shown to positively correlate with the plaque burden and the risk of myocardial infarction. Calcification of atherosclerotic plaques has been clearly shown to result from osteoblastic differentia...

Efforts to eradicate cardiovascular disease (CVD) are progressing no faster than The Race for the Cure1 is in breast cancer. In the case of CVD, although therapies for the ravages of atherosclerosis continue to improve, the prevalence of disease is more than keeping pace. Recently, the World Health Organization has predicted that today’s 17 million deaths worldwide attributable to heart disease...