Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) is involved in the pathological phenotypic transformation of vascular smooth muscle cells in atherosclerosis. Galectin‑3 also has an important role in atherosclerosis. However, little is currently known regarding the effects of galectin‑3 on the oxLDL‑induced phenotypic transformation of vascular smooth muscle cells. In the present study, primary culture...

Vascular calcification is an active process of osteoblastic differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells; however, its definite mechanism remains unknown. Vinpocetine, a derivative of the alkaloid vincamine, has been demonstrated to inhibit the high glucose-induced proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells; however, it remains unknown whether vinpocetine can affect the osteoblastic diffe...

Factors in plasma and platelets do not fully account for the proliferation of smooth muscle cells in vascular injury, implying that additional factors are involved. Recently, we and others have observed that vascular injury regulates basic fibroblast growth factor, suggesting a further role for this pleiotropic factor. We report here that injury of rat arteries leads to an increase in fibroblas...

less than 5% of prenatal thymoctes express hla-dr before week 12 of gestation. however, the number of hla-dr- positive cells increases during the late second and third trimesters of development. to determine the role of alpha-smooth muscle actin in fetal thymic hla-dr signaling in different stages of development we examined and compared the immunohistochemical expression of alpha-smooth muscle ...

background: vascular calcification is an important stage in atherosclerosis. during this stage, vascular smooth muscle cells (vsmc) synthesize many osteogenic factors such as osteonectin (encoded by sparc). oxidative stress plays a critical role in atherosclerosis progression, and its accumulation in the vascular wall stimulates the development of atherosclerosis and vascular calcification. the...

The embryonic vasculature develops from endothelial cells that form a primitive vascular plexus which recruits smooth muscle cells to form the arterial and venous systems. The MADS-box transcription factor MEF2C is expressed in developing endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells (SMCs), as well as in surrounding mesenchyme, during embryogenesis. Targeted deletion of the mouse MEF2C gene result...

Migration of smooth muscle cells from the arterial media to the intima is central to several vascular pathologies including restenosis. This study demonstrates that, like directional migration of other cells, smooth muscle migration is accompanied by a dramatic, polarized reorganization of the cell cytoskeleton that is accompanied by activation of the Rho GTPase Cdc42 and inactivation of glycog...

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This is in part attributed to the effects of hyperglycemia on vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In diabetic animal models, hyperglycemia results in hypercontractility of vascular smooth muscle possibly due to increased activation of Rh...

OBJECTIVE Carbon monoxide (CO) is generated from vascular smooth muscle cells via the degradation of heme by the enzyme heme oxygenase-1. Since smooth muscle cell apoptosis is associated with numerous vascular disorders, we investigated whether CO regulates apoptosis in vascular smooth muscle. METHODS AND RESULTS Treatment of cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells with a combination of cytok...