The Relationship Between Hypertension and Inflammation

The summary for the The Relationship Between Hypertension and Inflammation grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Institutes of Health, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

The Relationship Between Hypertension and Inflammation: This initiative will encourage the study of the sequence of events in which the vascular inflammatory state contributes to the development and maintenance of hypertension. Ample evidence suggests that inflammation may play a role in the pathogenesis of hypertension or that it may characterize a functional state of the vessel wall as a consequence of high blood pressure. Angiotensin II (Ang II), a widely recognized vasoconstrictor and anti-natriuretic involved in blood pressure regulation, also acts as a pro-inflammatory factor in the cardiovascular system. Ang II stimulates the expression of several inflammatory cytokines, which in turn affect blood pressure. A potential linkage between Ang II and immuno-cytokines is their shared ability to induce the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which serve as second messengers for many intracellular signaling pathways. The production of ROS not only decreases bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO), a vasodilator, but also initiates the functional and morphological alterations, such as remodeling, in the vascular wall that accompany the hypertensive state over time. This initiative would provide an opportunity to bring focus on the potential causal relationship between hypertension and inflammation in a cohesive, integrated manner. A new understanding of hypertension and inflammation would provide novel opportunities to prevent and treat the disease.