Biomechanics of the circulatory system and its pharmacological modulation

Abstract

The pressure and flow produced by circulating blood as well as contractions of the heart and blood vessels act as biomechanical stimuli on the cardiovascular system. The cardiovascular response to the hemodynamic stimuli is a type of physical reception and a subsequent reaction, and thus touches the core of up-to-date problems, including cellular signaling and the interaction between the blood and endothelium and/or medial smooth muscles. Pathophysiological conditions such as vasospasm, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia and myocardial hypertrophy, and atherosclerosis, are also caused by abnormal biomechanical stimuli. The present article summarizes the papers presented at the congress symposium of the 66th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Pharmacological Society, in which the present status and the future prospects of current research fields such as shear stress and endothelial function, regulation of blood pressure and flow, myogenic tone, mechanosensitive ion channels, and clinical implications of high and low shear stress and hemodynamic overload were actively discussed. These studies will surely open the way to an era for the development of new drugs, and improvements in the knowledge about the hemodynamic mechanisms in health and disease.