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Review
. 2022 Jan 19:12:749296.
doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.749296. eCollection 2021.

Emerging Roles of Circular RNAs in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Dysfunction

Zuo Pu  1 , Jingbo Lu  1 , Xiaohan Yang  1
Affiliations
Review

Emerging Roles of Circular RNAs in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Dysfunction

Zuo Pu et al. Front Genet. .

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is the major pathophysiological basis of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) constitute the main structure of vasculature and play important roles in maintaining vascular tone and blood pressure. Many biological processes and cellular signaling events involved in atherosclerogenesis have been shown to converge on deregulating VSMC functions. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying dysfunctional VSMC in atherosclerosis are still poorly defined. Recent evidence revealed that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are closely related to diseases such as degenerative diseases, tumor, congenital diseases, endocrine diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Several studies demonstrated that circRNAs (e.g., circACTA2, Circ-SATB2, circDiaph3, circ_0020397, circTET3, circCCDC66) played critical roles in the regulation of VSMC proliferation, migration, invasion, and contractile-to-synthetic phenotype transformation by sponging microRNAs (e.g., miR-548f-5p, miR-939, miR-148a-5p, miR-138, miR-351-5p, miR-342-3p). This review describes recent progress in the profiling of circRNAs by transcriptome analysis in VSMCs and their molecular functions in regulating VSMC proliferation and migration.

Keywords: circACTA2; circRNAs; circ_0002579; circular RNAs; vascular smooth muscle cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Differentially expressed circRNAs in different status of VSMCs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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