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Are we content with lowering blood pressure alone, or should we be asking something more from the antihypertensive drugs we use?: effects of antihypertensive agents on fibrinolytic function

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 18, pages 681–683 (2004)Cite this article

The fibrinolytic system plays an important role preventing intravascular thrombosis. The process of fibrinolysis is influenced by the intimate interactions between plasminogen activators (such as tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) that promotes fibrinolysis) and inhibitors that modulate this activity (such as plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1)) — however, the net effect of the fibrinolytic system is mediated by activation of plasminogen to plasmin.1

Plasmin is a serine protease that cleaves fibrin into soluble fragments, but shows other important functions, including increasingthe activity of matrix metalloproteinases,2 which degrade collagen and glycoproteins in atherosclerotic plaques, and thus, may be responsible for vascular remodelling. Plasmin also activates transforming growth factor-beta, an anti-inflammatory cytokine that inhibits migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells, being of crucial importance in the early stages of atherosclerosis.3 Structural and functional changes in vascular endothelium, which could be interpreted as a response to injury to the cell, may be involved in the development of vascular disease.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Haematology Unit, Hospital of San Vicente, Alicante, Spain

    V Roldán

  2. Cardiology Department, General Hospital of Alicante, Alicante, Spain

    F Marín

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  1. V Roldán
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  2. F Marín
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Correspondence to F Marín.

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Roldán, V., Marín, F. Are we content with lowering blood pressure alone, or should we be asking something more from the antihypertensive drugs we use?: effects of antihypertensive agents on fibrinolytic function. J Hum Hypertens 18, 681–683 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001754

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001754

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