The cardiovascular system has the primary function of generating adequate flow to the organs and tissues of our body. In this sense, blood vessels, through active adjustments (vascular tone) and passive adjustments (structural and mechanical remodeling), are of fundamental importance for the maintenance and distribution of the blood flow and for the control of peripheral vascular resistance and venous return. Among the mechanisms that control vascular tone and remodeling, we can mention: hemodynamic forces and local, humoral and neural mechanisms. It is known that diseases that affect the cardiovascular system have a high prevalence in the population, being commonly chronic diseases that burden public coffers, and despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, they still have high mortality rates and reduce the patients’ quality of life.

In the Vascular Physiology Lab (LabVasc), we seek to elucidate the cell signaling pathways and the molecular bases involved in functional (vascular reactivity) and structural (structural and mechanical remodeling) adjustments in conductance and resistance vessels in cardiovascular diseases (hypertension and heart failure), as well as pharmacological and non-pharmacological maneuvers (exercise training, microbiota and cross-fostering) that can restore or prevent vascular damage.

Our studies are focused on evaluating the participation of endothelium, perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), perivascular innervation and Na+, K+-ATPase (through the ouabain action in the signalosome pathway) in vascular adjustments. For that, hemodynamic (arterial and ventricular) evaluations and vascular reactivity and structure/mechanical assessments (in conductance and resistance rings) are performed, in addition to biochemical, molecular and fluorescence microscopy analyses.