May 6, 1998 ATHENS, Ga. -- When it comes to blood vessels, all
people are not created equal. Blacks have more problems with
cardiovascular disease than whites. Males die from heart attacks
far more often than females. Women suffer from migraine
headaches more often than men. The reasons are complex, and only
now are scientists discovering why. A new discovery by
researchers at the University of Georgia may help explain one
aspect of the tangled problem. Using small pieces of left-over
saphenous vein tissue from heart bypass surgeries, they compared
the veins of white men and women and discovered a startling
difference between them. They demonstrated for the first time
dramatic differences in the density of receptors for a powerful
and naturally occurring blood-borne substance called
endothelin-1. And it's more bad news for white males. "We won't
entirely know the relevance of this study until we do the same
experiments with arterial tissue, but it's an important first
step," said Dr.Adviye Ergul of the Univer