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Updated: Sep 17, 2025

Ultrasound Assessment of Endothelial Function: A Technical Guideline of the Flow-mediated Dilation Test
Published on: April 27, 2016
Vascular dysfunction in diabetes and pharmacotherapeutic opportunities: a focus on endothelial cell health
Ross A Okazaki1, Syed H Rizvi1, Rachael Lyons1
1Section of Vascular Biology, Department of Medicine, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Abstract:
Endothelial dysfunction contributes to the pathogenesis and progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease. Endothelial dysfunction in T2DM has been studied extensively using experimental models and human studies using noninvasive assessment of vasomotor function. Recent work has also demonstrated the feasibility of translational research using freshly isolated human endothelial cells (FIHECs) to uncover novel mechanisms of endothelial dysfunction in T2DM. This review provides an overview of the relationship between endothelial dysfunction and cardiometabolic disease, with an emphasis on novel mechanisms of endothelial dysfunction in T2DM that have been uncovered in FIHECs. We then discuss how FIHECs could be used in the assessment of the vascular benefits of current and future therapeutic treatments for patients with T2DM.
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