“…However, the NMDAR is also expressed within peripheral tissues including the kidney, sex organs, keratinocytes, and the cardiovascular system (Deng, Valdivielso, Munger, Blantz, & Thomson, 2002; Gill & Pulido, 2001; Morhenn, Murakami, O'Grady, Nordberg, & Gallo, 2004). Specifically, the NMDAR is localized within the heart and vascular (aorta and mesenteric arteries) tissues (Carlton, Chung, Ding, & Coggeshall, 1998; Gill & Pulido, 2001; Leung et al, 2002; McGee & Abdel-Rahman, 2012), and its activation causes dose-related pressor responses in conscious rats (McGee & Abdel-Rahman, 2012). Similar to its neuronal action (Gunasekar, Kanthasamy, Borowitz, & Isom, 1995; Reyes, Brennan, Shen, Baldwin, & Swanson, 2012), peripheral NMDAR mediates vascular oxidative stress (McGee & Abdel-Rahman, 2010).…”