<International Circulation>:How important is endothelial function in the whole pressure picture? 
  《国际循环》：请问在血压中内皮细胞的功能有多重要呢？
    Prof. Alvolio : It seems to have a function in relation to the peripheral resistance. If one can modify peripheral resistance， it can therefore change the mean blood pressure. There are interesting areas that are coming out in terms of endothelial function affecting the extracellular matrix. One interesting area is changes in endothelial function， for example if there is inflammation there would be a reduction of bioavailability of nitrous oxide. When that happens， certain other processes start to take place. For example post translational modification of proteins. One area is S-nitrosylation， where we’ve been doing some work with a group at Johns Hopkins， the protein， transglutaminase2， seems to be effected by this process S-nitrosylation. When that is affected， it goes out from the cell into the extracellular matrix which causes cross linkages of collagen therefore the artery becomes stiffer. It is an interesting process of changes from the cellular function to the extracellular structural changes. 
    Alvolio教授：内皮细胞的功能似乎和外周阻力相关。如果我们能调节外周阻力，我们就能改变平均血压。目前出现了一个有趣的研究领域，被称为内皮细胞功能影响着细胞外基质的改变。其中一个有趣的方向是内皮细胞功能的改变，比如假设有炎症发生就会有一氧化氮生物活性的降低。当这些发生时，其他的一些反应过程就开始了。例如蛋白的翻译后修饰。其中之一就是S-亚硝基化，我们已经和霍普金斯的一个研究组合作了一些研究，结果一种蛋白，谷氨酰胺转移酶2，似乎能被这一S-亚硝基化过程所影响。当谷氨酰胺转移酶2一旦被这种作用影响，它就从细胞内进入细胞外基质，然后导致胶原的相互连接从而增加动脉的将硬度。这是一个有趣的从细胞功能到细胞外基质的改变过程。