TGF-ß/Smad3 Stimulates Stem Cell/Developmental Gene Expression and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell De-Differentiation

More than 200 genes were differentially expressed (>2.0 fold change, p<0.05) in TGF-b/Smad3 stimulated SMCs. We then performed GO term enrichment analysis using the DAVID bioinformatics database and found that TGF-b/Smad3 activated the expression of multiple genes related to either development or cell differentiation, several of which have been shown to be associated with multipotent stem or progenitor cells.在经转化生长因子-β（Transforming Growth Factor-β, TGF-β）/Smad3刺激的平滑肌细胞（Smooth Muscle Cells, SMCs）中，有超过200个基因呈现差异表达（倍数变化>2.0，p<0.05）。随后我们使用DAVID生物信息学数据库开展基因本体（Gene Ontology, GO）术语富集分析，结果发现转化生长因子-β/Smad3可激活多个与发育或细胞分化相关的基因的表达，其中已有数个基因被证实与多能干细胞或祖细胞存在关联。