Recent key advancements on mechanotransduction in cardiovascular health

Interviewer: We're joined today by Professor Martin Schwartz from the Yale School of Medicine to discuss some of the key advancements made in the past year or so in the field of cardiovascular research. Professor Schwartz, thank you very much for joining us. Prof. Schwartz: Thank you for inviting me. Looking back at the last 6-12 months or so, can you share with us what you consider to be the key advancements in cardiovascular research? Prof. Schwartz: Happy to. I think I need to start by sharing my general perspective, which is a little different from most people's and certainly different than what you will read in the newspaper and magazines. To my mind, cardiovascular disease is principally atherosclerosis and it's the consequence of three classes of risk factors. We all know about the metabolic risk factors, high cholesterol, diabetes, insulin resistance, and those kinds of things. I think scientists and physicians probably for about 20 years have recognized that atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease, and there's a whole set of inflammatory risk factors that are important contributors. The third arm is biomechanical. We know that hypertension is a very potent risk factor. What gets less publicity is that the shear stress patterns from blood flow are also an important determinant. Within our arteries, there are straight segments where blood just flows through that segment and that high laminar blood flow is strongly protective, and there are regions where arteries curve or branch.