BAX and hypertensive disorder: It has been shown that elevated expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and/or decreased expression of pro-apoptotic Bcl2 associated X protein (Bax) are commonly found in the arteries of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR; an effective model for research of hypertension), suggesting that a reduction in apoptosis of damaged VSMCs is involved in the pathogenesis of vascular remodeling [15,16,17].