ArticleCell reports2021
Mechanosensitive smooth muscle cell phenotypic plasticity emerging from a null state and the balance between Rac and Rho.
Article in Cell reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Rhythms of growth: unveiling the mechanobiology behind heart maturation.The Journal of physiology · 2026Review
- Study on the Effect and Mechanism of the Outer Membrane Vesicles ofMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Engineering a Matrix-Preserving Vascular dECM Platform with Tunable Stiffness forbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Review
- Computational identification of novel therapeutic candidates for Streptococcus pyogenes and influenza A coinfections through transcriptomic-based drug repositioning.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Transcriptional control of PPP2CB by YAP1 and TEAD1 mediates AMPK inhibition and mTORC1 activation in vascular smooth muscle cells.iScience · 2026Article
- Role and mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle cell phenotypic transition in diabetic macrovascular complications.Biological research · 2026Review
- Decoding Vascular Senescence: Cellular Insights and Therapeutic Strategies.International journal of biological sciences · 2026Review
- The STRIPAK complex is required for radial sorting and laminin receptor expression in Schwann cells.Cell reports · 2025Article
- ECM Modifications Driven by Age and Metabolic Stress Directly Promote Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Osteogenic Processes.Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology · 2025Article
- Multi-Omics Analysis Combined with Machine Learning Identified FABP4 in Smooth Muscle Cells as a Pathogenic Factor in Atherosclerosis.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Article
- Review
- Disturbed flow regulates protein disulfide isomerase A1 expression via microRNA-204.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Arterial Mechanics, Extracellular Matrix, and Smooth Muscle Differentiation in Carotid Arteries Deficient for Rac1.Annals of vascular medicine and research · 2024Article
- Biophysical control of plasticity and patterning in regeneration and cancer.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2023Review
- Survivin as a mediator of stiffness-induced cell cycle progression and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells.APL bioengineering · 2023Article
- Key role for Rac in the early transcriptional response to extracellular matrix stiffness and stiffness-dependent repression of ATF3.Journal of cell science · 2023Article
- Smooth Muscle Heterogeneity and Plasticity in Health and Aortic Aneurysmal Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Article
- YAP/TAZ as master regulators in cancer: modulation, function and therapeutic approaches.Nature cancer · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Reversible differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) plays a critical role in vascular biology and disease. Changes in VSMC differentiation correlate with stiffness of the arterial extracellular matrix (ECM), but causal relationships remain unclear. We show that VSMC plasticity is mechanosensitive and that both the de-differentiated and differentiated fates are promoted by the same ECM stiffness. Differential equations developed to model this behavior predicted that a null VSMC state generates the dual fates in response to ECM stiffness. Direct measurements of cellular forces, proliferation, and contractile gene expression validated these predictions and showed that fate outcome is mediated by Rac-Rho homeostasis. Rac, through distinct effects on YAP and TAZ, is required for both fates. Rho drives the contractile state alone, so its level of activity, relative to Rac, drives phenotypic choice. Our results show how the cellular response to a single ECM stiffness generates bi-stability and VSMC plasticity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.