Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) provide strength and flexibility to the blood vessels; however, in response to cholesterol deposition in the arteries, they start proliferating and growing exponentially bigger , something these cells don’t normally do. As a result of this atypical behavior, these cells contribute to coronary artery disease by further clogging the already clogged arteries. The smooth muscle cells exhibit the same reaction in response to stents or bypass grafts utilized to treat CAD.
1 Scientists from the Medical College of Georgia have now, for the first time, identified that the ATIC gene involved in the de novo synthesis of purine, one of the two chemical compounds in the body required to make the building blocks of DNA, is overexpressed in VSMCs . Moreover, knocking out the ATIC gene inhibited the growth of smooth muscle cells in animal models of atherosclerosis…
