Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Biomedical Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China
  • 2 Health Sciences Department, Universiti Selangor, 40000, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 3 Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC)-a joint cooperation between the Charité-University Medicine Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), 13125, Berlin, Germany. maik.gollasch@charite.de
  • 4 School of Biomedical Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China. yu-huang@cuhk.edu.hk
Cardiovasc Drugs Ther, 2018 10;32(5):481-502.
PMID: 30171461 DOI: 10.1007/s10557-018-6820-z

Abstract

Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) refers to the local aggregate of adipose tissue surrounding the vascular tree, exhibiting phenotypes from white to brown and beige adipocytes. Although PVAT has long been regarded as simply a structural unit providing mechanical support to vasculature, it is now gaining reputation as an integral endocrine/paracrine component, in addition to the well-established modulator endothelium, in regulating vascular tone. Since the discovery of anti-contractile effect of PVAT in 1991, the use of multiple rodent models of reduced amounts of PVAT has revealed its regulatory role in vascular remodeling and cardiovascular implications, including atherosclerosis. PVAT does not only release PVAT-derived relaxing factors (PVRFs) to activate multiple subsets of endothelial and vascular smooth muscle potassium channels and anti-inflammatory signals in the vasculature, but it does also provide an interface for neuron-adipocyte interactions in the vascular wall to regulate arterial vascular tone. In this review, we outline our current understanding towards PVAT and attempt to provide hints about future studies that can sharpen the therapeutic potential of PVAT against cardiovascular diseases and their complications.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.