Finding out how diabetes affects our blood vessels

Investigation of endothelial cell signalling in freshly isolated tubes

Professor Kim Dora and colleagues from the University of Oxford are interested in how positively charged calcium atoms, known as calcium ions, affect blood vessel narrowing. The level of calcium ions in cells lining the blood vessels controls the processes leading to blood vessel dilation. This dilation can improve blood flow into tissues, so any changes to the level of calcium ions that cause narrowing of the blood vessel will reduce blood flow to tissues. This team will study the inner lining of blood vessels, known as the endothelium, from arteries in normal mice and mice with diabetes where a calcium ion channel is absent. These will be used to study changes in calcium ion levels inside the cells of the endothelium and the resulting electrical signals that cause blood vessel narrowing. Specifically, this research will help increase understanding of why high sugar levels resulting from diabetes reduce electric signalling and how increases in calcium ions affect the growth of new arteries. The method developed for this research will enable future blood vessel studies under different disease conditions. This research may lead to the development of drugs to prevent blood vessel narrowing.