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Review
. 2018 Sep 11;31(10):1067-1078.
doi: 10.1093/ajh/hpy083.

Hypertension Induced Morphological and Physiological Changes in Cells of the Arterial Wall

Patricia Martinez-Quinones  1   2 , Cameron G McCarthy  2 , Stephanie W Watts  3 , Nicole S Klee  2 , Amel Komic  1   2 , Fabiano B Calmasini  2 , Fernanda Priviero  2 , Alexander Warner  2 , Yu Chenghao  2 , Camilla F Wenceslau  2
Affiliations
Review

Hypertension Induced Morphological and Physiological Changes in Cells of the Arterial Wall

Patricia Martinez-Quinones et al. Am J Hypertens. .

Abstract

Morphological and physiological changes in the vasculature have been described in the evolution and maintenance of hypertension. Hypertension-induced vascular dysfunction may present itself as a contributing, or consequential factor, to vascular remodeling caused by chronically elevated systemic arterial blood pressure. Changes in all vessel layers, from the endothelium to the perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), have been described. This mini-review focuses on the current knowledge of the structure and function of the vessel layers, specifically muscular arteries: intima, media, adventitia, PVAT, and the cell types harbored within each vessel layer. The contributions of each cell type to vessel homeostasis and pathophysiological development of hypertension will be highlighted.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Arterial remodeling in hypertension. Typical representative images of mesenteric resistance arteries from Wistar–Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) showing the inward remodeling in SHR arteries. Confocal images (×40 magnification) of increased colocalization immunofluorescence for Toll-like receptor 9 (red) and MyD88 (green).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Identification of pericytes in mice renal medullary capillaries. Pericytes (arrow) wrapping around medullary renal capillaries. Nerve/glial antigen 2-NG2 (red) used as pericyte localization marker for immunofluorescence. Abbreviation: DAPI (blue), 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Representative images comparing vascular changes between resistance arteries from normotensive (a) and hypertensive (b) model. When comparing hypertensive resistance arteries with normotensive ones, it is important to note that endothelial cells are damaged and express adhesion molecules, VSMC hypertrophy and hyperplasia, increase in number of infiltrating cells between the medial layer and adventitial layer, increased collagen deposition, and increased number of resident fibrocytes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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