Ji, HaYeun Atchison, Leigh Chen, Zaozao Chakraborty, Syandan Jung, Youngmee Truskey, George A. Christoforou, Nicolas Leong, Kam W. 2024-01-20T04:33:00Z 2024-01-20T04:33:00Z 2021-09-04 2016-04 0142-9612 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/124247 Access to smooth muscle cells (SMC) would create opportunities for tissue engineering, drug testing, and disease modeling. Herein we report the direct conversion of human endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) to induced smooth muscle cells (iSMC) by induced expression of MYOCD. The EPC undergo a cytoskeletal rearrangement resembling that of mesenchymal cells within 3 days post initiation of MYOCD expression. By day 7, the reprogrammed cells show upregulation of smooth muscle markers ACTA2, MYHM, and TAGLN by qRT-PCR and ACTA2 and MYH11 expression by immunofluorescence. By two weeks, they resemble umbilical artery SMC in microarray gene expression analysis. The iSMC, in contrast to EPC control, show calcium transients in response to phenylephrine stimulation and a contractility an order of magnitude higher than that of EPC as determined by traction force microscopy. Tissue-engineered blood vessels constructed using iSMC show functionality with respect to flow- and drug-mediated vasodilation and vasoconstriction. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. English ELSEVIER SCI LTD PLURIPOTENT STEM-CELLS SERUM RESPONSE FACTOR ENGINEERED BLOOD-VESSELS UMBILICAL-CORD BLOOD GENE-EXPRESSION INTRACELLULAR CALCIUM DIRECT CONVERSION NEURONAL CELLS TRACTION FORCE MYOCARDIN Transdifferentiation of human endothelial progenitors into smooth muscle cells Article 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2016.01.066 1 BIOMATERIALS, v.85, pp.180 - 194 BIOMATERIALS 85 180 194 scie scopus 000371841400015 2-s2.0-84958212615 Engineering, Biomedical Materials Science, Biomaterials Engineering Materials Science Article PLURIPOTENT STEM-CELLS SERUM RESPONSE FACTOR ENGINEERED BLOOD-VESSELS UMBILICAL-CORD BLOOD GENE-EXPRESSION INTRACELLULAR CALCIUM DIRECT CONVERSION NEURONAL CELLS TRACTION FORCE MYOCARDIN Direct transdifferentiation Direct reprogramming Smooth muscle cell differentiation Myocardin Tissue-engineered blood vessel