Experimental work during the past 15 years has demonstrated that endothelial cells in the
heart play an obligatory role in regulating and maintaining cardiac function, in particular, at …

Hypertension is the major controllable risk factor associated with cardiovascular disease
(CVD) events such as myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, and end-stage diabetes. A …

Background Metabolic disorders such as obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes
mellitus (DM2) are all linked to diabetic cardiomyopathy that lead to heart failure …

Our recent studies suggest that 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 functions as an endocrine
suppressor of renin biosynthesis. Genetic disruption of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) results …

A technique is presented that allows neonatal rat cardiac myocytes to form spontaneously
and coherently beating 3‐dimensional engineered heart tissue (EHT) in vitro, either as a …

White adipose tissue and liver are important angiotensinogen (AGT) production sites. Until
now, plasma AGT was considered to be a reflection of hepatic production. Because plasma …

The renin-angiotensin system has long been recognized as an important regulator of
systemic blood pressure and renal electrolyte homeostasis, and local renin-angiotensin …

Angiotensin II, the effector peptide of the renin-angiotensin system, regulates cellular growth
in response to developmental, physiological, and pathological processes. The identification …

Angiotensin II (AII) is a major determinant of arterial pressure and volume homeostasis,
mainly because of its vascular action via the AII type 1 receptor (AT1R). AII has also been …

To examine the influence of chronic mechanical stretch on functional behavior of cardiac
myocytes, we reconstituted embryonic chick or neonatal rat cardiac myocytes to a 3 …