C-Kit Is Essential for Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotypic Switch In Vitro and In Vivo After Injury.

ABSTRACT: Pathological vascular remodeling-central to restenosis, atherosclerosis, and vasculo-proliferative diseases-depends on the phenotypic switching of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from a quiescent, contractile state to a synthetic, proliferative program. Although the receptor tyrosine kinase c-Kit is implicated in proliferation, migration, and tissue repair, its role in VSMC plasticity has yet to be fully understood. Using c-Kit haploinsufficient mice subjected to right carotid artery ligation (CAL) and primary aortic VSMC cultures, we show that c-Kit is required for the contractile-to-synthetic transition. In vitro, c-Kit haploinsufficiency halved c-Kit expression, reduced 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation, and blunted platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB)-induced rep

SUBMITTER: Siracusa C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12564463 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature