How our arteries age

Smooth muscle cell regulation of vascular ageing

BHF Professor Martin Bennett and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge are studying artery ageing to find new ways to prevent it or slow it down. Ageing affects all the organs of the body, including our arteries. When they age, the endothelial cells lining the arteries become damaged. When this happens the blood vessels stiffen and high blood pressure can develop. Currently we don't know what causes the arteries to age. Although we know that genetic material, our DNA, can be damaged as the rest of the body ages, we don’t know if DNA becomes damaged in the artery wall. We also lack good models to test new drugs in the lab that might increase or decrease artery ageing. In this project, Professor Bennett will study what happens to the structure and function of the arteries of mice when they age. He will examine whether damage to the cells of the artery wall promotes ageing, and the effect of accelerating or delaying ageing or causing DNA damage in these cells. He will determine whether changes in the function of these cells could explain artery ageing and will also design two new artery ageing models that can be used to test new treatments in the future. By better understanding the mechanisms that underlie artery ageing, this research could lead to new treatments to prevent or delay it.