More information: Stephanie W. Watts et al, A New Function for Perivascular Adipose Tissue (PVAT): Assistance of Arterial Stress Relaxation, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020 ...

The fat, known as perivascular adipose tissue, or PVAT, helps arteries do what scientists call "stress relax," or let go of muscular tension while under constant strain.

Figure 2. Histology of normal artery (large and medium sized). Normal artery is made up of three layers from outside inwards: tunica adventitia, tunica media and tunica intima.

Morgan B. Elliott, Brian Ginn, Takuma Fukunishi, Djahida Bedja, Abhilash Suresh, Theresa Chen, Takahiro Inoue, Harry C. Dietz, Lakshmi Santhanam, Hai-Quan Mao, Narutoshi Hibino, Sharon Gerecht, ...