Understanding how small arteries work, to shed light on high blood pressure

Junctophilin 2 as a cytoskeletal anchor facilitating vascular smooth muscle cell ion channel cross-talk

The pressure of the blood flowing through your arteries is continuously adjusted to your need: during exercise, your heart beats quicker and blood pressure increases to make sure your muscles receive enough oxygen and nutrients to keep working. Blood pressure is adjusted by the narrowing and dilatation widening of the blood vessels. This happens in big arteries like the aorta, as well as tiny arteries that perfuse organs. One feature of high blood pressure (also called hypertension) is that very tiny arteries in the body squeeze too tightly leading to a build-up of high blood pressure in the rest of the body. Previous studies have shown how big blood vessels narrow and widen, but less is known on the way small arteries work. Dr Adam Greenstein and his team have discovered that a molecule called junctophilin-2, which is present in small arteries, appears to be important in arranging apparatus within the blood vessel cells so that signals telling the blood vessel cells to widen or narrow can pass quickly between cells along the artery. In this project, the team will explore further how juntophilin-2 works and control the narrowing and widening of small arteries. This will increase our understanding of the biology of our small blood vessels and could also improve our understanding of high blood pressure small vessels disease in general.