<International Circulation>：Can you tell us the difference and the clinical significance of the RAS in both the cardiovascular system and the adipose tissue? Can you discuss some of your work in that area?

  《国际循环》：我只有三个简短的问题。首先，您能否告诉我们肾素-血管紧张素系统的临床意义？我们知道除了心血管系统，脂肪组织也存在肾素-血管紧张素系统。您能否论述下您在这一领域的研究？

    Prof. Cassis:The major goal of my laboratory is to try to take out the different components of the RAS， specifically adipocytes to try to resolve， at least experimentally， that very question. Is the adipose tissue a contributor to the production of angiotensin， especially in the setting of obesity where there is expanded adipose mass? Does the adipose tissue respond to angiotensin， and if so， what does it do and is it altered in obesity hypertension. Those are the major questions but clinically there is conflicting evidence. In obesity hypertension there seems to be uniform data that the RAS is activated but the question is what the contribution of the adipose tissue is， which is more difficult to resolve. 

    Cassis教授：我们实验室的研究目标是设法发现脂肪组织中的肾素-血管紧张素系统不同的组成成分，至少从实验上能解决这一问题。既然脂肪组织可以产生血管紧张素，特别在肥胖者体内存在大量的脂肪，是否脂肪组织对血管紧张素存在应答机制？若有，会产生何种影响？能否影响肥胖/高血压？这些都是关键问题所在，我想临床上肯定存在矛盾的研究结果。因此，似乎大家一致认为在肥胖/高血压者体内，肾素-血管紧张素系统被激活了。但问题是脂肪在这一过程有何贡献？哪个更难以得到解决？