Hypertension remains a significant health concern, affecting over a billion adults globally. Endothelial dysfunction is a characteristic of hypertension that has been associated with decreased nitric oxide availability. Animal studies have demonstrated that modulating nitric oxide can alleviate hypertension, validating the endothelium as a therapeutic target for this condition. Recently, a molecule called "family with sequence similarity 3, member D," (FAM3D), was found to be upregulated in endothelial cells during the development of abdominal aortic aneurysms in mice. FAM3D is a cytokine-like protein involved in recruiting monocytes and neutrophils. Notably, inhibiting FAM3D expression mitigates the progression of abdominal aortic aneurysms by reducing neutrophil infiltration. Here, Shen and colleagues investigated the role of FAM3D in the pathophysiology of hypertension, both in humans and mice, and evaluated the anti-hypertensive properties of anti-FAM3D treatments. Their remarkable findings were published in 2023 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

Adapted from: Shen Y et al., Cell Reports Medicine. 2023 Jun 20;4(6):101072. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101072. Epub 2023 Jun 9.

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