Dr. Greg Fink Still Seeking the Elusive Answers to Hypertension

By Chuck Carlson

Dr. Greg Fink has studied the body’s cardiovascular system for four decades. Along the way, he has seen remarkable, life-changing advances in the field, especially when it comes to the study of hypertension (chronically elevated blood pressure).

Dr. Fink has established himself as one of the nation’s preeminent researchers on the subject, and he has been the recipient of many national and international awards, including the highly prestigious Irvine Page & Alva Bradley Lifetime Achievement Award, from the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension.

Yet, with all the progress and knowledge gained over the years in the treatment of high blood pressure, Dr. Fink knows there is still so much more to learn. And it’s a challenge he still relishes.

“As any scientist will tell you, ‘eureka’ moments are very few and far between,” he said. “If you go through your whole career and make one really significant discovery, you’re a success. Every single day of my life, I wake up and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to be part of that?’ “

He has been part of plenty in his Michigan State University career that began in 1977.

“I’m still getting used to it,” he said with a smile.

A cardiovascular pharmacologist by training, he helped identify how the brain’s hypothalamus is activated by salt to release key neurotransmitters that increase blood pressure. Although this topic is still under study, Dr. Fink’s work was one of the key clues that too much salt in the diet could lead to hypertension.

“Knowing (salt) is a mechanism has allowed us to think about possible targets,” he said.

He has studied the link between obesity and hypertension and the significance of the hormone angiotensin, which regulates blood pressure by narrowing blood vessels and triggering salt and water intake.

He is also part of an MSU group of researchers studying the impact of chemerin, a protein made by fat cells, which plays a significant role in how the body manages fat, sugar, and inflammation and can be linked to heart issues, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Most recently, he was one of the authors of an American Heart Association Journal paper on a non-invasive way to measure blood pressure in laboratory rats and mice. This technique, known as radiotelemetry, provides insight into how new drugs can help lower blood pressure. Dr. Fink’s lab was one of the first in the US to use this methodology in mice, and his team is considered to be world experts in its use.

From his days first as an undergraduate at Penn State University, his Ph.D. at Tulane University, and his postdoctoral work at the University of Iowa, Dr. Fink has seen the study and knowledge of cardiovascular disease grow.

While the subject of hypertension has been the center of his research for years (he’s even presenting a history of the disease in July at the hypertension “summer school” in Chicago), it wasn’t always his field.

“I was working on my Ph.D. and studying the manufacturing of red blood cells,” he said. “I had to do a biology assay, and it was very laborious, and I might have to wait two weeks for results. I had a lot of free time, so I went around to other labs to see what they were doing.”

One of those labs that caught his eye was studying cardiovascular pharmacology, and before long, he began working with renowned cardiovascular pharmacologist Dr. Michael Brody. He was hooked.

“He was hugely formative in my career,” Dr. Fink said.

Dr. Fink has spent his career with MSU’s Pharmacology and Toxicology Department and College of Osteopathic Medicine, working to unravel the still perplexing puzzle of high blood pressure. And he admits it’s been a challenge.

He remembers a time as a post-doc when it seemed that a way of truly controlling high blood pressure was near, thanks to genetic therapy.

“We thought that there were maybe six genes that are really important in controlling blood pressure,” Dr. Fink said. “And once we get a handle on those, we could use genetic methods to get a handle on high blood pressure.”

Then he smiles ruefully.

“Now we know there are more than 2,000 genes that are involved, and each of them has a very tiny effect. So, the likelihood of recreating someone’s genome in a way that they won’t get hypertension is very unlikely. Unfortunately, we got an answer we didn’t like. The question is how we lower blood pressure with a method that’s reliable, safe and that people will do. It’s turning out to be more challenging than we thought.”

Dr. Fink and his colleagues in the field knew it wouldn’t be an easy or quick solution, and perhaps, there really is no answer to why and how hypertension appears in some people and not in others.

But the effort to understand and, perhaps, control hypertension continues.

“To truly manage hypertension at the population level would have a colossal impact on human health and a colossal effect on the cost of health care because heart failure caused by hypertension is the most common and expensive thing you go to the hospital for,” he said. “It would be an epic-making event. What the strategy will be, I don’t know. It won’t be easy, but I think it’s possible.”