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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Fundus Photography as a Convenient Tool to Study Microvascular Responses to Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Epidemiological Studies
Published on: October 22, 2014
Microvascular rarefaction: the decline and fall of blood vessels
1Departments of Medicine, Pharmacology and Physiology, Renal Research Institute, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, USA. michael_goligorsky@nymc.edu
Abstract:
The goals of this presentation are two-fold: (1) to briefly sketch the field of vascular rarefaction as a key component of various fibrotic diseases and (2) to illustrate it with four vignettes depicting diverse mechanisms of microvascular rarefaction. Specifically, I shall describe migratory and angiogenic incompetence of endothelial cells under conditions of reduced bioavailability of nitric oxide, role of endothelial-to-mesenchymal cell and mesenchymal stem cell-to-endothelial reprogramming, and potential role of antiangiogenic peptides in the development of graft vascular disease as exemplified by chronic allograft nephropathy.
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