How blood vessel smooth muscle cells become synthetic

Kinesin-control of podosome formation in vascular smooth muscle cells

The walls of blood vessels are lined by cells that contract or relax to control blood flow. These cells are important for repairing the vessel wall after an injury. To do this, the cells become ‘synthetic’: they produce and reorganise protein fibres outside the cell. These processes are important to repair the blood vessels, but can also contribute to plaque formation in atherosclerosis (the condition that causes coronary heart disease). The ability to reorganise protein fibres outside the cell requires the formation of podosomes - structures in the cell membrane that secrete proteins and generate forces on extracellular fibres. In this PhD studentship, at the University of Warwick, the researchers want to find out how podosomes are formed in vessel wall cells. They have discovered a protein that is important for forming podosomes. The protein is a molecular motor that transports proteins within the cell and they will find out which of the cargoes it transports are important for podosome formation and whether the transporter has additional functions beyond delivering cargo. This is important because ‘synthetic’ vessel wall cells promote atherosclerosis and stopping podosome formation might help to combat cardiovascular disease.