Regional and cellular significance of the brain renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in hypertension

• The brain RAS has long been considered pivotal in normal cardiovascular regulation and in the pathogenesis of neuro-cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension.
• However, the questions of which genes, where in the brain, and what cell types are involved in these cardiovascular effects have remained a mystery due, in part, to a lack of appropriate experimental tools.
• Much of our work has focused on dissecting the functional role of brain RAS genes and related molecules using an array of newly developed transgenic models and genomic techniques.