Grant: Operating Grant

Blood pressure is the force exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels (i.e. arteries). Hypertension, commonly referred to as high blood pressure, is a medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated. Persistent hypertension is one of the risk factors for strokes, heart attacks and heart failure, and it is a leading cause of chronic kidney failure. However, only in a small number of patients with high blood pressure can a specific cause be identified. The smooth muscle layer is an important component of all viens and arteries and is an important regulator of blood pressure. In fact, research has found that dysfunctional smooth muscle in the smallest of arteries of the body may contribute to hypertension. This research is concerned with understanding how smooth muscle operates in the body to regulate blood pressure in health and disease. In order to contract, smooth muscle cells use filaments composed of actin and myosin proteins. Contraction is caused by the pulling of these protein filaments to cause shortening of the smooth muscle cell. While the protein subunits of the filaments are essentially the same in all muscles (e.g. skeletal, heart and smooth muscle in arteries), there are different mechanisms in place to regulate the contraction and relaxation process. The objective of this research is to explore how a muscle protein called zipper-interacting protein kinase controls the contraction of smooth muscle cells of arteries. We have found that the zipper kinase is important in arteries because it influences how strongly the smooth muscle can contract. Recently, we created a variety of tools to detect specifically how the zipper protein functions in smooth muscle. With these tools, we will be able to precisely identify how the protein controls artery function.