Essential role of adventitial reactive oxygen species in vascular function

Abstract

Vascular adventitia, the area between the external elastic lamina and the outermost edge of the blood vessel, is one of the basic components of a blood vessel. In the past, the adventitia was considered to be simply a structural asset for the blood vessel. Strikingly, current research has revealed some important characteristics of the adventitia. Thus, this chapter provides an overview of the published knowledge to demonstrate the active role of the adventitia as a major source of vascular oxidative stress. The topics to be covered here include the adventitia of the vascular system, cellular composition of the adventitia, contribution of the adventitia to vascular oxidative stress, and the role of adventitial reactive oxygen species in vascular oxidative stress, vasomotor responses, extracellular matrix protein expression, endothelin-1 expression, and vascular fibroblast differentiation. The limitations of studying vascular adventitia are also discussed.