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In two new studies, researchers put forward provocative new theories about hypertension.
A European team studied salt-sensitive hypertension in mice. Excess salt intake led not only to expansion of intravascular volume but also to proliferation of lymphatic vessels under the skin that stored excess fluid. This phenomenon lessened intravascular volume and, thus, reversed the rise in blood pressure that resulted from initial salt loading. The proliferation of lymphatic vessels was produced by the angiogenesis molecule VEGF-C, which had been stimulated by another molecule (TonEBP) that is produced in response to hypertonic conditions. The investigators postulated that defects in this system cause salt-sensitive hypertension.
A team from Boston r…