Extracellular matrix remodeling in the cardiovascular system

Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of death in developed countries. Risk factors such as increased blood pressure or plasma cholesterol, smoking, obesity, diabetes, pollution or a sedentary way of life, exert their actions on top of a sophisticated machine composed by a pump (the heart) and tube network (the vasculature), whose biomechanical properties depend on the extracellular matrix. Far from being an stiff and static material, the extracellular matrix is a dynamic structure able to respond to a number of signals as a consequence or damage or in the context of a hereditary disease. The analysis of the mechanisms regulating the homeostasis of the extracellular matrix (synthesis, deposition and remodeling) is central to understand the molecular basis of a number of cardiovascular diseases.