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Gerasimovskaya et al. Vessel Plus 2019;3:11 Vessel Plus
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1209.2019.11

Editorial Open Access

Vascular remodeling 2018: the updates

Evgenia Gerasimovskaya , Alexander Verin 2
1
1 Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
2 Vasular Biology Center, Augusta University, Augusta, GA 30912, USA.

Correspondence to: Associate Prof. Evgenia Gerasimovskaya, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, University of Colorado Denver,
Aurora, CO 80045, USA. E-mail: evgenia.gerasimovskaya@ucdenver.edu

How to cite this article: Gerasimovskaya E, Verin A. Vascular remodeling 2018: the updates. Vessel Plus 2019;3:11.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1209.2019.11

Received: 21 Feb 2019 Accepted: 21 Feb 2019 Published: 17 Apr 2019
Science Editors: Alexander D. Verin, Evgenia V. Gerasimovskaya Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Huan-Liang Wu

Cardiovascular research is fundamentally important to human health, and research progress in this field could
not be overemphasized. Recently we were encouraged by the editors of Vessels Plus to invite vascular biologists
to submit their research and review articles to the special issue on “Vascular remodeling 2018: the updates” that
would show up some overview of recent research from biomedical vascular science. In this special issue, we
assembled five reviews and one original research paper devoted various areas of vascular biology and denoted
recent advances in clinically relevant cellular and signaling mechanisms in vascular remodeling.

[1]
The review of Strassheim et al. 2018, describes the role of G proteins-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in
pulmonary hypertension (PH) and potential for future targeted therapies. Pulmonary hypertension involves
stiffening of pulmonary arteries and increased remodeling of small vessels. Increased pressure in the
pulmonary circulation promotes hypertrophy of the heart and, eventually, cardiac failure. GPCRs signaling
play a prominent role in maintaining homeostasis and dysregulated signaling contributes to cardiovascular
pathology. Current therapies predominantly target vasodilatory pathways and include cGMP-protein kinase
G signaling, calcium channels, endothelin receptors, and prostacyclin receptors. The pathways, by which
GPCRs control transcription factors involved in vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation and
vascular remodeling and those controlling cardiac myocyte hypertrophy or transition to cardiac failure, are
far from clear. Understanding the role of GPCR-mediated signaling in PH will lead to discovering better
therapies than is currently realized.

Pulmonary hypertension in neonates is (PHN) is associated with high mobility and mortality and is
involved in the pathogenesis of various pediatric pulmonary disease states, such as intrauterine growth

© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
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and indicate if changes were made.

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