NIH R01 · 2024
Role of the TLR4 signaling in smooth muscle cell phenotypic transition
Abstract There is a growing body of evidence that smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotypic transitions play an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. However, there is still little understanding of molecular mechanisms responsible for these transitions in vivo. Recently, we found that the embryonic stem cell/induced pluripotency stem cell (iPSC) factor OCT4, which was believed to be silenced in somatic cells, plays an atheroprotective role in SMC, in that genetic inactivation of Oct4 in SMC led to marked increases in lesion size and multiple indices of plaque instability in Apoe‒/‒ mice. While we showed that OCT4 is required for SMC migration and investment into the protective…
From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.