Pathophysiology of Vascular Remodeling in Hypertension

Figure 1

Changes are predominantly in media-to-lumen ratio (M/L), changing the vessel wall width for increased muscle mass (Figure 1(A)) or in the reorganization of cellular and noncellular elements (Figure 1(B)). Another mechanism of remodeling mainly involves changes in the dimensions of the lumen (Figures 1(C) and 1(D)). In this case, the restructuring of the active components and cell signals does not result in significant changes in the dimensions of the vascular lumen. Another form of vascular remodeling is microcirculation rarefaction (Figures 1(E) and 1(F)).