Regulatory mechanism of vascular smooth muscle cell phenotype switch in aortic disease: An update / 第二军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

Aortic disease (AD) consists of a series of life-threatening diseases caused by aortic wall lesions. Up to now little has been known about the etiology of non-hereditary AD. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) are the major components of the medial aortic wall and can toggle between a contractile phenotype and a synthetic phenotype. The excessive transformation of VSMC from contractile state to synthetic state plays an important role in the development and progression of AD. Although there are many researches on the regulation of VSMS phenotype switch, how these regulatory pathways operate harmoniously and the what relationship between them remain to be elucidated. Here in this paper we reviewed the existing regulatory mechanisms of VSMC phenotype switch.