fig1

Figure 1. Cardiovascular aging and the need to develop effective therapeutic strategies. Aging is the primary risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases. This increase in risk is largely mediated by the development of vascular dysfunction, characterized primarily by large elastic artery stiffening and endothelial dysfunction. It is an important biomedical research priority to develop evidence-based therapeutic strategies to target these manifestations of vascular dysfunction to reduce the risk for cardiovascular diseases.