Directing Smooth Muscle Cell Fate

Directing smooth muscle cell fate: a partial reprogramming approach to engineer vessels.

The Smooth Muscle Cell

These studies have examined the ability of smooth muscle cells from developing aorta of the prepubertal rat to utilize amino acids in the synthesis and secretion of connective tissue proteins. Prepubertal rats, previously given either an alcohol carrier or estradiol-17-beta, were each given an intravenous injection of proline-(3)H. The animals were sacrificed after 15 and 30 min, and 4 hr. Ligh...

Fibroblast Growth Factor 12 Is a Novel Regulator of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Plasticity and Fate.

OBJECTIVE Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) modulate their phenotype between synthetic and contractile states in response to environmental changes; this modulation plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of restenosis and atherosclerosis. Here, we identified fibroblast growth factor 12 (FGF12) as a novel key regulator of the VSMC phenotype switch. APPROACH AND RESULTS Using murine models ...

ARTICLES miR-145 and miR-143 regulate smooth muscle cell fate and plasticity

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are regulators of myriad cellular events, but evidence for a single miRNA that can efficiently differentiate multipotent stem cells into a specific lineage or regulate direct reprogramming of cells into an alternative cell fate has been elusive. Here we show that miR-145 and miR-143 are co-transcribed in multipotent murine cardiac progenitors before becoming localized to smoo...

UnTEThering (smooth muscle) cell plasticity.

C ellular plasticity has become the subject of intense research, with perhaps the greatest example provided by the recent Nobel Prize winners Drs Yamananka and Gurdon and the demonstration that terminally differentiated fibro-blasts can be coaxed into assuming an embryonic stem cell-like fate. Emerging evidence suggests that plasticity inherent in cells may be hijacked in the progression of dis...