Robert P. Mecham

TL;DR: By correlating vessel mechanics with physiological blood pressure across animal species and in mice with altered vessel compliance, it is shown that cardiac and vascular development are physiologically coupled, and there is evidence for a universal elastic modulus that controls the parameters of ECM deposition in vessel wall development.

TL;DR: Elastin has an unanticipated regulatory function during arterial development, controlling proliferation of smooth muscle and stabilizing arterial structure.

TL;DR: Analysis of the elastin gene has demonstrated that hydrophobic and cross‐linking domains are encoded in separate exons and that there is significant alternative splicing, resulting in multiple isoforms of tropoelastin.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors showed that increased TGF-beta signaling may contribute to the multisystem pathogenesis of Marfan syndrome, including the development of myxomatous changes of the atrioventricular valves.

TL;DR: Elastin-degradation products enriched in cross-linking regions recruit inflammatory cells in vivo and that elastin proteolysis, characteristic of emphysema, may be a signal for recruitment of mononuclear phagocytes into the lungs.