Grant: Operating Grant - PA: Regional Partnership Program - Newfoundland and Labrador

Doctors know that blood vessels do not work properly in people diagnosed with high blood presure (hypertension) and diabetes. Unfortunately, hypertension is a common health concern for Canadians even those living healthy lifestyles because many people will develop it while ageing. The occurence of type 2 diabetes in children now has set them up for life long problems for their cardiovascular health. The communication signals between two types of cells in blood vessels, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells, are altered by those diseases and by ageing. This research program is seeking information about a protein (PAR2) that creates communication signals between the endothelial and smooth muscle cells. PAR2 causes rapid effects that may benefit health. These rapid effects are not affected by blood vessel disease. The research program will also look at the slow effects of PAR2. By studying PAR2, we may learn important new things about preserving our cell-to-cell communication in blood vessels. Developing drugs that are resistant to the communication defects in blood vessels would be useful to Doctors for their treatment of patients with heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.