The use of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived vascular smooth muscle cells to study aneurysmal diseases

Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) deficiency plays a pivotal role in aneurysm development. Unfortunately, access to native VSMCs of patients and (particularly) control individuals is extremely limited. It has been shown that iPSC-derived VSMCs recapitulate the yet known disease processes very well. They can thus serve as a substitute for their native counterparts when studying and therapeutically targeting human aneurysmal phenotypes. Even the fact that tissue VSMCs of different embryonic origins discretely contribute to disease development and/or progression can be accounted for by using specific differentiation protocols for mesoderm- and neural crest-derived VSMCs. In our research team we use iPSC-VSMCs to assist the search for modifier genes, to further unravel the disease mechanisms and to find novel drug compounds.