Fate and State of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells in Atherosclerosis.

ABSTRACT: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) have long been associated with phenotypic modulation/plasticity or dedifferentiation. Innovative technologies in cell lineage tracing, single-cell RNA sequencing, and human genomics have been integrated to gain unprecedented insights into the molecular reprogramming of VSMCs to other cell phenotypes in experimental and clinical atherosclerosis. The current thinking is that an apparently small subset of contractile VSMCs undergoes a fate switch to transitional, multipotential cells that can adopt plaque-destabilizing (inflammation, ossification) or plaque-stabilizing (collagen matrix deposition) cell states. Several candidate mediators of such VSMC fate and state changes are coming to light with intriguing implications for understanding coronary artery d

SUBMITTER: Miano JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8162373 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature