Heart failure(HF)is the end stage of many cardiovascular diseases. Both the neurohumor overactivation and ventricular remodeling are the critical pathophy-siological processes of HF. It has been demonstrated that the serum level of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is elevated obviously in HF patients. As a circulatory hormone,BNP is mainly produced in cardiac ventricle. Through the natriuretic receptor(NPR)-cyclic guanosine monophosphate(cGMP)pathway, BNP performs the properties of natriuresis,diuresis, vasodilatation,enhancing vagal reflex and inhibiting sympathetic activity, which can improve the hemodynamic of HF without activation of plasma renin. It has been reported that BNP has effects of antihypertrophic and antifibrotic and plays a role in the antiventricular remodeling. In a word, BNP plays an important role of cardioprotection in the development and prognosis of HF though the local autocrine and/orparacrine ways.

Inflammatory processes appear to play an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases.It has been established that inflammation has a pivotal role in the atherosclerosis.As a major risk factor contributed to atherosclerosis,hypertension seems to be a chronically low-grade inflammation process.Lots of studies suggested that blood pressure elevation is significantly positive correlation with the levels of inflammatory mediators,such as C-reactive protein.Inflammation may promote the process of hypertension.Furthermore,inflammation is highly associated with cardiac fibrosis and vascular remodeling in hypertension.Current clinical trials,for example,ASCOT-LLA suggested that use atorvastatin to reduce the inflammatory reaction in hypertensive patients with normal concentration of cholesterol would decrease the major cardiovascular events(relative risk reduction 36%).This paper summarizes the association inflammation with hypertension as well as cardiac fibrosis and vascular remodeling,and tries to explore the clinical significance of the association.

The treatment modalities of stem cells repairing infarction myocardial include stem cell transplantation and mobilization.The inflammatory factors and cytokines play an important role in the process of repairing infracted myocardium. In this paper we will review the effect of cytokines on the process of stem cells mobilization, homing, proliferation and differentiation in after acute myocardium infraction.

Aim To explore the role of macrophages in the progression of fibrosis in spontaneously hypertensive rats and study effects and possible mechanisms of benazepril.Methods 12-week-old male SHRs were divided into hypertension group(SHR,n=10),benazepril treatment groups(BenL,BenH subgroup;Rats received benazepril 1.7 or 17 mg?kg-1?d-1 intragastric administration,respectively;each n=10),and age and sex matched Wistar Kyoto rats were set as control group(WKY,n=10).After 18 weeks' intervention,systolic blood pressure(SBP),left ventricular mass(LVM),left ventricular mass index(LVMI),contents of left ventricular collagen and macrophages were examined.Transcriptional levels of TGF-?_1 and interleukin-6(IL-6)were evaluated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR).Results The amount of macrophages in SHR group was strikingly increased and transcriptional levels of TGF-?_1 and IL-6 in SHR group were much higher when compared with WKY group(P

Vascular remodeling is not only the pathologic cause of circulation dysfunction and vascular disease such as hypertension and diabetes,but also can accelerate the process of dysfunction and failure of target organs.To reverse vascular remodeling has been one of the clinical aims.Kidney is one of the critical common target organs of many kinds of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.The main part of the intrarenal resistance comes from the intrarenal small arteries,and the remodeling of intrarenal small arteries can reduce the blood supply of kidney and lead to excessive activation of neuroendocrine system as well their vicious cycle,resulting a terrible prognosis together with kidney and other target organs failure.This paper reviews the advance of vascular remodeling especially in the intrarenal small arteries.

Myocardial fibrosis caused by various reasons (such as inf la mmatory, ischemia, hypertension) can induce the myocardial damage if the process continued. There is very progress in the research of the prevention and cure of myocardial fibrosis in present years. This paper summarizes the detection of my ocardial fibrosis in laboratory, and the progress and mechanisms of medication i n myocardial fibrosis.

Objective To investigate the features of remodeling of intramyocardial small arteries(IMSAs) in rats with idiopathic hypertension(SHR).Methods12-week-old male SHR rats(experimental group,n=10) with the age and sex matched Wistar Kyoto rats(WKY,control group,n=10) were included in present study.Experiments were continued for 18 weeks.The blood pressure of all the animals was measured at the beginning and at the end of experiment,and then all the animals were sacrificed.The left ventricle tissue sections were stained with HE,Sirius-red,elasticity fibrin and collagen fibrin double staining(P/VB) for morphological evaluation of IMSAs.The wall area(WA),luminal area(LA) and percent wall area(%WA) of IMSAs were assessed with the compute-assisted image analysis system.The vascular smooth muscle cells(VSMCs) were recognized by ?-SMA immunohistochemical staining,the proliferation and apoptosis of IMSAs were demonstrated by proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA) immunohistochemical staining and TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling(TUNEL) technique,respectively.The apoptosis index(AI) and proliferation index(PI) were calculated respectively.Results Systolic blood pressure(SBP) in SHR group at week 12 and week 30 were significantly higher than those in WKY group(172.00?9.78mmHg vs 123.40?5.10mmHg,200.50?14.15mmHg vs 116.30?9.38mmHg,respectively,P

Annexin-A1(ANXA1)can influence inflammatory processes, contributing to the development of many age-related diseases, such as atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes.However, the mechanisms through which ANXA1 participates in inflamm-aging remain unclear.This article reviews research advances on ANXA1 in aging and age-related diseases.

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP)is synthesized and secreted chiefly from heart. It is a cardiac neurohormone specifically secreted from the ventricles in response to volume expansion and pressure overload. BNP is also a plasma marker for diagnosis, therapy and prognosis in patients with heart failure.

DBP. CONCLUSION: The cerebral complication in essential hypertension is correlated to SBP, DBP and PP. However, PP plays the most important role among the different parameters of blood pressure in the pathogenesis of the cerebral complication.