Immune cells help blood vessel function thus promoting healthy blood pressure

What is it about?

In health, it is normal to have fat that surrounds our blood vessels. This fat helps the blood vessels relax and our blood pressure stay healthy. When people become obese, the fat cells in the body alter, including the ones that surround blood vessels. These changes alter blood vessel function contributing to high blood pressure and even diabetes. It is normal to have fat that surrounds our blood vessels and this fat helps the blood vessels relax and your blood pressure stay healthy. Our work has shown that special immune cells called eosinophils, are found in the fat around blood vessels and it is these eosinophils that help the fat look after our blood vessels. In obesity, there is a loss of eosinophils in the fat so this may be a big factor in why, in obesity, the fat surrounding blood vessels can't function properly anymore. The eosinophils make lots of different chemicals and our study has identified how some of these help blood vessel function.

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Why is it important?

This study shows a novel role for a particular immune cell, the eosinophil, in controlling blood pressure. This is important because by understanding what eosinophils make that helps our blood pressure, we can ultimately look to design completely new treatments for high blood pressure

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