Redox Stress Defines the Small Artery Vasculopathy of Hypertension: How Do We Bridge the Bench-to-Bedside Gap?

While convincing experimental evidence demonstrates the importance of vascular reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), oxidative stress and perturbed redox signaling as causative processes in the vasculopathy of hypertension, this has not translated to the clinic. We discuss this bench-to-bedside disparity and the urgency to progress vascular redox pathobiology from experimental models to patients by studying disease-relevant human tissues. It is only through such approaches that the unambiguous role of vascular redox stress will be defined so that mechanism-based therapies in a personalized and precise manner can be developed to prevent, slow or reverse progression of small vessel disorders and consequent hypertension.