Vascular insulin resistance in hypertension

Among the broad variety of effects evoked by insulin, its ability to modulate the vascular tone has recently been the focus of a growing body of studies. The attention for this issue comes from the evidence that essential hypertension and other vascular diseases show a strong association with resistance to the action of insulin. Many efforts have been made to elucidate the mechanisms by which insulin exerts its vascular effects, using studies both in human forearm and in rat vascular tissue in vitro.