Thirty years ago it was thought that the endothelium, a layer of thin, flat cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels was inert. However, major discoveries since then have demonstrated that it is a highly metabolic organ involved in maintaining the equilibrium of the circulatory system. In fact it is so important that alterations in its behaviour can lead to vessel wall disease, causing conditions such as hypertension (elevated blood pressure), atheroscelrosis (hardening of the arteries) and thrombosis (blood clots). In this lecture Salvador Moncada will discuss the significance of these discoveries for our understanding of normal and abnormal vessel behaviour, and their implications for defining future directions for vascular research.
This lecture will also be delivered on Thursday 12 May at the University of Glasgow
During an exceptional career, Salvador Moncada was part of the team that discovered prostacyclin, a compound which dilates blood vessels and is now used for the treatment of primary pulmonary hypertension; and solved a 100 year old puzzle as to why the compound nitroglycerine is effective in treating angina.