When the cardiovascular system suffers from any exogenous stimulation the blood vessel endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and myocardia can synthesize and release lots of endogenous protective substances, such as prostaglandins, nitric oxide, bradykinin, adenosine and calcitonin gene related peptide. They initiate the transcription and activation processes of endogenous protective molecules, those are heat shock proteins, metallothionein, taurine, etc through intracellular signaling pathways, for example, protein kinase C and mitogen activated protein kinases. These protective molecules can protect the cardiovascular system from injury via antiapoptosis and antioxidation mechanisms.
