Molecular Perspectives of Vascular Wall Structure and Disease: The Elastic Component

In 1974 more than 50 percent of all deaths in the United States were caused by the major cardiovascular diseases [I]. Thus the ancient dictum that "a man is as old as his arteries" is even more applicable to longevity in our modern Western society. With past analytical developments utilized in biomedical research, the primary site within the vascular wall of two of the three major degenerative processes has been identified as the elastic fiber. This has led to an extension of the above statement. "It is true that we have the age of our arteries. This means more or less that we have the age of their elastic fibers" [2]. More recently, composite elements of the elastic fiber have been described in molecular detail [3, 4]. These molecular descriptions provide an understanding of the mechanism of pathological calcification of the elastic fiber [5] and of deleterious lipid deposition in this essential dynamic component of vascular wall [6]; they provide an understanding of the importance of temperature in the formation and repair of elastic fiber [7]; and they may provide a molecular rationale for relating elevated sodium chloride levels to elevated blood pressures [7]. The molecular perspectives derive from physicochemical methods and concepts applied in studying the structure and disease of vascular wall elastic fiber.