AHA Scientific Sessions 2026 AbstractNov 7, 2026, 00:49 GMT

Mice lacking a protein released by cells had lower blood pressure

Genetically altered mice also had lower levels of aldosterone, a hormone involved in blood pressure control, than unmodified controls.

Paper by Meixi Quan, Qiulian Zhou, Zhenguo Wang, +5Anthony Rosenzweig · Univ of Michigan

Adrenal gland cross-sections above small mice show sparse hormone shapes on one side and dense hormone shapes with dark protein clusters on the other.

Our read

Mechanisms

Studied:: Experiments in IGFBP7 KO mice, against WT controls
What changed:: Blood pressure was lower in IGFBP7 knockout mice than in wild-type controls
The catch:: The conference abstract did not report group sizes for the mice
Why it’s aging research:: It bears on staying healthy in midlife and later life.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper

Mice genetically engineered to lack IGFBP7, a protein released by cells and associated with senescence, had lower blood pressure than unmodified mice in animal experiments. Senescence is a state in which cells stop dividing. The altered mice also had less aldosterone, a hormone involved in blood pressure control: 197.0 versus 457.6 picograms per milliliter in controls. Their adrenal glands showed lower activity of genes involved in making cholesterol and steroid hormones.

In an observational analysis of UK Biobank participants, higher blood levels of IGFBP7 were associated with higher blood pressure and existing hypertension after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index and measurement factors. In NCI-H295R cells grown in the lab, added IGFBP7 increased aldosterone production.

Why it matters

A senescence-associated protein’s role in blood pressure control raises questions about links between cell senescence and cardiovascular disease. The authors suggested investigating IGFBP7 as a potential therapeutic target.

Caveats

Lifelong gene deletion in mice did not test whether a drug targeting IGFBP7 would lower blood pressure in people. The findings came from a conference abstract that did not give mouse group sizes.