According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1/3 of adults in the United States have high blood pressure, which increases the risk for heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death in the United States. Researchers have found that increasing certain proteins in the blood vessels of mice lowers the animal’s blood pressure. This study may lead to new treatments for hypertension.
“The cytochrome P450 plays an important role in the management of high blood pressure, a disease of enormous public health concern,” said Darryl Zeldin, M.D., acting clinical director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
The researchers created animal models that had a human cytochrome P450 in their cells that line the blood vessels. The mice with the P450 generated more epoxyeicosatrienoic acids or EETs, which relax and dilate the blood vessels and fight inflammation. EETS protect our cardiovascular system.
“We found that when the animals were exposed to substances known to increase blood pressure, the animals with the P450 had lower blood pressure and less damage to the kidneys compared to normal mice,” said Craig R. Lee, Pharm.D., Ph.D., assistant professor at UNC and lead author on the paper.
This could open new doors to find treatments for hypertension and high blood pressure.
