発見されたタンパク質 JAM-1
（緑色。赤色は微小血管）
写真提供：University of Bristol
高血圧の原因は，心臓や血管だけではなく脳にもあるらしい。英国の研究班は，脳の血管壁に高血圧の原因と思われる新しいタンパク質を発見した。このタンパク質が白血球を捕まえると，炎症が起こり，脳の血流が妨げられ，酸素が十分供給されなくなるという。つまり，高血圧は脳の血管の炎症によっても起こるというのだ。高血圧患者は世界でも増加する一方であるが，この研究が進めば，従来の薬が効かない患者にも有効な薬が登場するかもしれない。（吉田素子）
The novel(1) idea that one cause of high blood pressure(2) lies within the brain, and not the heart or blood vessels(3), has been put forward(4) by scientists at the University of Bristol and is published this week in the journal Hypertension(5).
Professor Julian Paton and his colleagues(6) Hidefumi Waki and Sergey Kasparov, have discovered a new protein(7), JAM-1 (junctional adhesion molecule-1), which is located in(8) the walls of blood vessels(9) in the brain.
JAM-1 traps white blood cells(10) called leukocytes(11) which, once trapped, can cause inflammation(12) and may obstruct(13) blood flow(14), resulting in(15) poor oxygen supply(16) to the brain. This has led to the novel idea that high blood pressure -- hypertension -- is an inflammatory vascular disease(17) of the brain.
One in three people in the UK are likely to develop(18) hypertension, and with 600 million people affected(19) world wide, it is of pandemic proportions(20).
Professor Paton said: "We are looking at the possibility of treating those patients that fail to respond to(21) conventional(22) therapy for high blood pressure with drugs that reduce blood vessel inflammation and increase blood flow within the brain. The future challenge(23) will be to understand the type of inflammation within the vessels in the brain, so that we know what drug to use, and how to target them. JAM-1 could provide us with new clues(24) as to how to deal with(25) this disease."
(1) 新しい (2) 高血圧 (3) 血管 (4) 提唱する (5) 高血圧 (6) 同僚，研究班 (7) タンパク質 (8) ～にある
(9) 血管壁 (10) 白血球 (11) 白血球 (12) 炎症 (13) 妨げる (14) 血流 (15) 結果として～になる
(16) 酸素供給 (17) 炎症性血管疾患 (18) 患う (19) 罹患している (20) 蔓延といってもよい規模である
(21)～に反応する (22) 従来の (23) 課題 (24) 手掛かり (25) ～に対処する
