YAP/TAZ Are Required to Suppress Osteogenic Differentiation of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells.

ABSTRACT: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) represent the prevailing cell type of arterial vessels and are essential for blood vessel structure and homeostasis. They have substantial potential for phenotypic plasticity when exposed to various stimuli in their local microenvironment. How VSMCs maintain their differentiated contractile phenotype is still poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that the Hippo pathway effectors YAP and TAZ play a critical role in maintaining the differentiated contractile phenotype of VSMCs. In the absence of YAP/TAZ, VSMCs lose their differentiated phenotype and undergo osteogenic differentiation, which results in vascular calcification. Osteogenic transdifferentiation was accompanied by the upregulation of Wnt target genes. The absence of YAP/TAZ in VSMCs led to Dis

SUBMITTER: Wang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7726335 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature