Publications by authors named "Tara van Merrienboer"
Lipidomic Signature of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm and Peripheral Artery Disease.
J Proteome Res
September 2025
Vascular diseases are powerful predictors of cardiovascular mortality, but they are typically under-recognized and undertreated. There is no effective treatment for either abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) or peripheral artery disease (PAD). Lipids are key molecules in cardiovascular diseases and good candidates for diagnosis, monitoring, and risk prediction; nonetheless, there is very limited information on the lipidomic profile of patients with AAA and PAD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: To study the influence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and metformin treatment on aneurysm sac remodeling after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). : A retrospective single-center cohort analysis was conducted on consecutive patients who underwent elective EVAR for an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) between January 2011 and December 2021. Differences between study groups were analyzed and Kaplan-Meier analysis were employed to describe overall and reintervention-free survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetformin Improves the Function of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Patient-Derived Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells.
Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg
March 2025
Objective: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a cardiovascular risk factor. Paradoxically, a decreased risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) presence and growth rate is described among patients with T2DM, associated with metformin use. This study aimed to investigate the effect of metformin on AAA patient-derived aortic smooth muscle cell (SMC) function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study focuses on abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), a condition where the aorta weakens and dilates in the abdomen, aiming to understand the specific cellular mechanisms involved by analyzing proteins in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from AAA patients versus healthy donors.
- Using advanced proteomic techniques, researchers found significant differences in proteins linked to extracellular matrix remodeling, energy metabolism, and muscle contractility between AAA patients and healthy individuals.
- The research revealed changes in phosphorylation patterns affecting structural proteins like those involved in the actin cytoskeleton and signaling pathways, suggesting specific kinases like NUAK1 and MAPK7 may play crucial roles in AAA development.
Background: Aortic aneurysms (AA) are pathological dilations of the aorta, associated with an overall mortality rate up to 90% in case of rupture. In addition to dilation, the aortic layers can separate by a tear within the layers, defined as aortic dissections (AD). Vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMC) are the predominant cell type within the aortic wall and dysregulation of vSMC functions contributes to AA and AD development and progression.
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