Why blood vessels can become like bone in old age

Mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle cell calcification and ageing

As we age, the smooth muscle cells that make up our blood vessels can start to calcify, becoming rigid like bone. The technical term for this phenomenon is vascular calcification. It can cause high blood pressure, heart attacks or strokes and with an ageing population the problem is on the rise. Patients with atherosclerosis (where fatty deposits build up in the coronary arteries), diabetes and chronic kidney disease can also suffer from vascular calcification. It is not fully understood why vascular calcification occurs. Professor Catherine Shanahan and her team have studied vascular calcification associated with conditions that cause premature ageing. Prof Shanahan now believes that accumulation of a protein called Prelamin A, which is important to the cell nucleus’ structure, may cause this calcification. Too much Prelamin A could be causing damage to the DNA of the smooth muscle cells, which then kicks off the process of smooth muscle cells turning into bone cells. Her team will test this theory in mice and human tissue samples. Being part of the King’s BHF Centre of Research Excellence they will collaborate with BHF Professors Ajay Shah and Qingbo Xu. Patients attending King’s university hospitals can volunteer to donate tissue samples for research. This research hopes to give new insights into what happens to the smooth muscle in blood vessels as we age. They also expect to determine whether drugs targeting the processes triggered by damaged DNA can be an effective treatment.