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Ahmed et al. Vessel Plus 2018;2:36 Vessel Plus
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1209.2018.51

Review Open Access

Vascular smooth muscle cell contractile function
and mechanotransduction

Sultan Ahmed, Derek T. Warren
School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.

Correspondence to: Dr. Derek T. Warren, School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
E-mail: derek.warren@uea.ac.uk

How to cite this article: Ahmed S, Warren DT. Vascular smooth muscle cell contractile function and mechanotransduction.
Vessel Plus 2018;2:36. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1209.2018.51

Received: 5 Jul 2018 First Decision: 19 Sep 2018 Revised: 15 Oct 2018 Accepted: 17 Oct 2018 Published: 5 Nov 2018
Science Editor: Alexander D. Verin Copy Editor: Cui Yu Production Editor: Zhong-Yu Guo

Abstract
Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are the predominant cell type in the arterial wall and normally adopt a
quiescent, contractile phenotype to regulate vascular tone. In the arterial wall, VSMCs are exposed to multiple
mechanical cues, including stretch and matrix stiffness, which regulate VSMC contraction. However, during ageing
and in vascular disease, such as atherosclerosis, hypertension and vascular calcification, the arterial wall stiffens and
VSMC contraction contributes to this process. VSMCs display remarkable plasticity and changes in their mechanical
environment promote VSMCs to adopt a proliferative, synthetic phenotype. VSMC phenotypic modulation is associated
with altered expression of contractile proteins that generate actomyosin-based force. However, our understanding of
precise mechanisms whereby altered mechanical landscape and mechanotransduction influence VSMC contraction
remains limited. In this review, we discuss the present literature describing how VSMCs sense and respond to changes
in their mechanical environment and how these changes influence VSMC contraction.

Keywords: Matrix stiffness, mechanotransduction, vascular smooth muscle cell, contraction

INTRODUCTION
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains one of most prevalent risk factors to health worldwide, and is the
[1]
second highest cause of mortality within the UK . The aberration of health caused from CVD places a heavy
burden on the health-care of developing countries as well as representing a major cause of death and morbidity
[2,3]
in industrialised countries . CVD is an umbrella term, which holds host to multiple related diseases,
[4]
including peripheral arterial disease, coronary heart disease and stroke . The risk factors of each vary
depending on the specificity of the disease, however many present common symptoms, providing a crucial

© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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