Vascular Disease - Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention
This Strategic Research Area is chaired by John Cooke, MD, PhD, Ron Dalman, MD and Marlene Rabinovitch, MD
Members include:
| Abilez, Oscar J. MD |
| Cooke, John MD, PhD |
| Dalman, Ronald L MD |
| Gould, Michael K. MD, MS |
| Gurtner, Geoffrey C MD, FACS |
| Kuo, Calvin MD, PhD |
| Leung, Lawrence L MD |
| Maduke, Merritt C PhD |
| Nayak, Nihar R MD |
| Pelc, Norbert PhD |
| Pruitt, Beth L PhD |
| Rabinovitch, Marlene MD |
| Rockson, Stan MD |
| Roof, Michal Bental PhD |
| Rudd, Peter MD |
| Terashima, Hiro MD, PhD |
| Tsao, Philip PhD |
| Zarins, Christopher MD |
With 2007 Institute seed funding, the Vascular Disease group is continuing research in Vascular regeneration: restoration of vascular health through reversing aging and building new vessels. Dr. Rabinovitch is principal investigator. You are only as old as your blood vessels. Physical, mental and sexual performance are each dependent upon the patency and flexibility of the blood vessels. Vascular aging is a major contributor to heart attack, stroke and dementia. The reversal of vascular aging seems possible based on new insights into the mechanisms of cellular senescence. Indeed, Stanford investigators have been able to reverse vascular aging at the level of cells in culture. The next step is to translate these fundamental discoveries into pre-clinical models of disease, in preparation for first-in-man studies.
Restoration of vascular health is the key to cardiovascular prevention. Although lifestyle changes and certain medications partially meet this need, there remains significant opportunity for improvement. Recent studies indicate that people have the capacity to partially restore the lining of their blood vessels with bone-marrow derived vascular stem cells. With aging, or with cardiovascular risk factors, this regenerative capacity is markedly diminished, and the risk of death or disability increases. New approaches are needed to enhance the regeneration of the vessel lining, to restore the patency of the blood vessel, and to enhance the flexibility of the vessel wall.
Vascular regeneration is a research front for a critical mass of Stanford faculty in cardiovascular medicine and cardiothoracic surgery, endocrinology, hematology, pathology, pulmonary medicine, plastic and vascular surgery. Areas of discovery and development include: the use angiogenic growth factors to expand the nutritive microvasculature; the manipulation of the biological clock in blood vessels; prevention of abnormal vessel remodeling; fabrication of large vessels to bypass obstructions; use of embryonic stem cells to restore the lining of blood vessels.
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