Calcium signals help limit artery narrowing in older mice
Laboratory experiments in mice aged 12–14 months and 3–4 months identified a protein that helped move calcium-entry channels to the surface of older mice’s artery cells.
Our read
Mechanisms- Studied:
- Experiments in young and old mice
- What changed:
- Blocking calcium-entry channels increased narrowing in older mice’s arteries
- The catch:
- Artery narrowing was measured, but blood pressure effects were not
- Why it’s aging research:
- It studies organisms or tissues that aged naturally.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Small arteries supplying the intestines and their smooth muscle cells from mice aged 3–4 months and 12–14 months were studied in laboratory experiments. Researchers used two drugs to block TRPC6, a channel that lets calcium enter cells. In older mice’s cells, the drugs reduced brief calcium releases from internal stores. They did not reduce these releases in young mice’s cells. Deleting TRPC6 from smooth muscle cells produced similar results for calcium release.
The drugs also reduced potassium-channel activity and made older mice’s arteries narrow. The researchers identified an age-related increase in CaMKIIδ, an enzyme that regulates other proteins, as a key regulator of TRPC6 movement to the cell surface. They concluded that this process helped activate signals that relax aging arteries.
Why it matters
Blood pressure and flow depend on how tightly small arteries constrict. This work addresses how aging changes the internal signals that restrain that constriction.
Caveats
The experiments measured cell signals and artery narrowing in mice, not whether altering this pathway improves blood pressure or health in people.
Where the evidence stands
TRPC6
- 4 independent labs in 3 countries
- Funders: National Institutes of Health and 5 more
CAMK2D
- 3 independent labs in 1 country
- Funders: Key Science and Technology Program of Shaanxi Province and 3 more
The paper
CaMKIIδ-TRPC6 Activates an RyR-BK Ca Feedback Axis in Aging Arteries
Shenzhen University Affiliated Nanshan Hospital; University Medicine Greifswald
Circulation Research, Nov 6, 2026
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