A "virtual human" model helped researchers gain insight into high blood pressure.
About 90 percent of all high blood pressure cases cannot be explained by medical experts, a Norwegian University of Science and Technology news release reported.
"Our results suggest that arterial stiffness represents a major therapeutic target. This is contrary to existing models, which typically explain high blood pressure in terms of defective kidney function," says Klas Pettersen, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and first author of the study, recently published in PLOS Computational Biology.
High blood pressure can raise the risk of "heart failure, stroke and kidney disease," the news release reported.
When blood pressure travels from the aorta to the heart, sensors called baroreceptors, sense the stretching of the aortic wall and send signals to the nervous system; the higher the blood pressure the higher these signals are.
If the aorta stiffens (which generally happens in old age) it starts to lose its ability to sense the amount of blood pressure imposing pressure.
"With the stiffening of the wall that follows ageing, these sensors become less able to send signals that reflect the actual blood pressure. Our mathematical model predicts the quantitative effects of this process on blood pressure," Klas Pettersen, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and first author of the study said in the news release.
"If our hypothesis is proven right, arterial stiffness and baroreceptor signaling will become hotspot targets for the treatment of high blood pressure and the development of new medicines and medical devices," Stig W. Omholt from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who was the senior investigator of the research project, said in the news release.
The team hopes to show that the stiffening of the aorta causes the baroreceptors to misinform the nervous system, evoking an inappropriate response.
"If we are to succeed in developing predictive, preventive and participatory medicine envisioned by so many, there is no substitute for building much stronger transdisciplinary ties between the life sciences, the mathematical sciences and engineering across the whole spectrum of basic, translational and applied research. And mathematical models of the human physiology will be at the core of this development," Omholt said.
