PhD defence: Mitochondrial function and the role of reactive oxygen species in microvascular skeletal muscle endothelial cells

Microvascular endothelial cells – Beauty or the Beast?

Camilla Collin Hansen

PhD thesis

Cardiovascular disease is highly prevalent and associated with the highest mortality rate in the Western world. Impaired function of endothelial cells, located on the inside of all blood vessels, is one of the main causes of cardiovascular disease.

It has been proposed, that individuals with high blood pressure have impaired function of the powerhouses of the cells, termed mitochondria, and increased mitochondrial formation of toxic substances, called reactive oxygen species (ROS), but evidence for this proposition is lacking.

Enhanced knowledge of mitochondrial function and ROS formation in high blood pressure is important for the molecular understanding of endothelial dysfunction and for the development of novel treatment strategies in cardiovascular disease.

The findings in present thesis were that high blood pressure was associated with elevated mitochondrial ROS in endothelial cells, which correlated with endothelial function determined in-vivo in the same patients. Exercise training ameliorate endothelial function in patients with high blood pressure by upregulating the defense system against mitochondrial ROS.

Download List of studies; Abstract; Danish resumé; Table of contents.

2022, 163 pages.

Time

11 March 2022, 15:00

Venue

Online.

Opponents

Professor Jørgen Wojtaszewski (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Coral Murrant, University of Guelph, Canada.

Lecturer Matthew Cocks, Liverpool John Moores's University, England.

Supervisor

Professor Ylva Hellsten, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Co supervisor

Associate professor Lasse Gliemann, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Perikles Simon, University of Mainz, Germany.

The thesis is available for inspection at the library, Nørre Allé 51, DK-2200 Copenhagen.