Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) play a key role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, the globally leading cause of death. The transmembrane orphan receptor endosialin (CD248) has been characterized as an activation marker of cells of the mesenchymal lineage including tumor-associated pericytes, stromal myofibroblasts, and activated VSMC. We, therefore, hypothesized that VSMC-expressed endosialin may display functional involvement in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.
Expression of endosialin was upregulated during atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E-null mice and human atherosclerotic samples analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Atherosclerosis, assessed by Oil Red O staining of the descending aorta, was significantly reduced in apolipoprotein E/endosialin-deficient mice on Western-type diet. Marker analysis of VSMC in lesions induced by shear stress-modifying cast implantation around the right carotid artery identified a more pronounced contractile VSMC phenotype in the absence of endosialin. Moreover, in addition to contributing to neointima formation, endosialin also potentially regulated the proinflammatory phenotype of VSMC as evidenced in surrogate cornea pocket assay experiments in vivo and corresponding flow cytometry and ELISA analyses in vitro.
The experiments identify endosialin as a potential regulator of phenotypic remodeling of VSMC contributing to atherosclerosis. The association of endosialin with atherosclerosis and its absent expression in nonatherosclerotic samples warrant further consideration of endosialin as a therapeutic target and biomarker.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 31 May 2020.
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#3,703,129
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Outputs from Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (Highwire)
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Outputs of similar age from Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (Highwire)
#7
of 67 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,365,356 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,133 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 67 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.
