Lymphatics in Cardiovascular Physiology.

Dakshnapriya Balasubbramanian, Brett M Mitchell

Journal: Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine 2022;12(8):a041173

PMID: 35288403

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Abstract

The lymphatic vessels play an essential role in maintaining immune and fluid homeostasis and in the transport of dietary lipids. The discovery of lymphatic endothelial cell-specific markers facilitated the visualization and mechanistic analysis of lymphatic vessels over the past two decades. As a result, lymphatic vessels have emerged as a crucial player in the pathogenesis of several cardiovascular diseases, as demonstrated by worsened disease progression caused by perturbations to lymphatic function. In this review, we discuss the major findings on the role of lymphatic vessels in cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, obesity, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and heart failure.

Address: Vascular Biology Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.; Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.; Department of Medical Physiology, Texas A&M University College of Medicine, Bryan, Texas 77807, USA.

DOI: 10.1101/cshperspect.a041173