A Michigan State University researcher adds new evidence to the argument that the fat around our arteries may play an important role in keeping those blood vessels healthy, according to Pannochka, an online publication for girls and women aged 14 to 35.. net This discovery could influence how researchers test treatments for plaque buildup in our arteries, or atherosclerosis, which can often lead to a heart attack, which is currently the leading cause of death..

Fat, known as perivascular adipose tissue, or PVAT, helps arteries do what scientists call " It's like a bladder that expands to hold more fluid while preventing it from sloshing out..

“In our study, PVAT reduced the stress that blood vessels experience when stretched,” says Stephanie Watts, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at MSU in the College of Osteopathic Medicine.. “And this is good, because then the vessel consumes less energy. He doesn't get that much stress."

According to Watts, a study that was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports made this finding so interesting that PVAT was largely ignored by researchers who thought its main job was to store lipids and do a little more.. Now her findings, building on previous findings, could help redefine how scientists think about blood vessels..

Currently, scientists divide the blood vessels into only three parts: the innermost layer is called the intima of the tunic, the middle layer is called the medium of the tunic, and the outermost layer is called the adventitia of the tunic..

Watts would like scientists to recognize PVAT as a fourth layer, which others have called tunica adiposa - tunica means the membrane that surrounds or lines the organ, and adiposa is synonymous with fat..

“For many years we ignored this layer - in the laboratory it was thrown away; it was not displayed in the clinic. But now we are discovering that it can be an integral part of our blood vessels,” Watts said.. “Our discoveries redefine what such functional blood vessels are and are part of what can be dysfunctional in the diseases that afflict us, including hypertension.. We need to pay attention to this blood vessel layer because it does a lot more than we originally thought.”.

Other researchers have shown that PVAT plays a role in blood vessel function by finding that it releases substances that can cause blood vessels to relax, as well as substances that can cause it to contract..

But Watts and her colleagues wanted to test whether PVAT itself, rather than the substances it releases, could play a role in blood vessel function.. So they set out to test whether PVAT provides a structural benefit to the arteries by helping stress relaxation function..

To do this, they tested the thoracic aorta in rats and found that those with intact PVAT had greater stress relaxation than those without it..

“My mind was blown,” Watts said when she saw that the pieces with surrounding fat were visibly relaxed more than those without.. “I got every person in my lab to come and see and I said, ‘Tell me if I’m hallucinating… do you think it’s real?

Watts and her colleagues also tested other arteries and were able to replicate the same answer..

“So that tells us it’s not just one time,” Watts said.. " But this may be a common occurrence."

medical-heal. en.