ELN and Hypertension: In a later study in which VSMC stiffness and adhesions to the ECM were also found to be increased in hypertensive rats (Sehgel et al., 2015a), hypertension did not increase the amount of collagen in the thoracic aorta, suggesting that increased vascular stiffness associated with hypertension is likely not exclusively mediated by altered collagen and elastin content, but by increased VSMC stiffness and adhesion (Sehgel et al., 2015a).