ERC Starting Grant
Award year: 2010
Category: Scholarship / Grant
Type: ERC Starting Grant
Awarding organization: Europäischer Forschungsrat (ERC)
Jens Titze investigates the connection between deposits of sodium in the skin and the onset of high blood pressure. He was able to demonstrate that the immune system and the lymphatic vessel system are involved in regulating blood pressure in addition to the brain, blood vessels and kidneys. He and his team discovered that sodium can be stored in the skin. To detect this hidden salt, the body sends phagocytes into the skin where immune cells transport the salt out of the tissue. If this cleaning process is disrupted, the salt collects in the skin resulting in high blood pressure.