Grant: Operating Grant

Blood vessels are well known to be the target of various physical insults. High blood pressure, high fat diet and smoking cause injuries to blood vessels and this has been known for quite some time. What is not known is how blood vessels repair after injury. We found in blood vessels several members of the Ferlin family of proteins, which are well known to promote repair after physical injury in skeletal muscle. Hence these proteins are likely candidate to explain how blood vessels undergo repair after physical stresses and insults. We propose to use animals with deficient repair machinery and determine how cardiovascular disease develops. This will shed a new light on how vessel repair prevents vascular disease.