Table 1.

Characteristics of widely used protein markers for VSMCs, distinguishing between contractile and synthetic phenotypes

Protein marker	Gene code	Subcellular localization	Function	VSMC Phenotype specificity		Expression in ATAAExpression in ATAA	Ref
				Contractile	Synthetic	(± /mut)
α-smooth muscle actin	ACTA2	Contractile filaments	Cellular contraction	+	-	−/mut	Guo et al., 2007 Gillis et al., 2013 Branchetti et al., 2013
Smooth muscle-myosin heavy chain	MYH11	Contractile filaments	Cellular contraction	+	-	−/mut	Zhu et al., [235] Gillis et al., 2013
Smooth Muscle 22α	SM22α	Actin-associated	Cellular contraction	+	-	-	Ignatieva et al., 2017
SM-calponin	CNN	Actin-associated/ cytoskeleton	Cellular contraction/ signal transduction	+	-	-	Grewal et al., 2014
Smoothelin (B)	SMTN	Actin-associated	Cellular contraction	+	-	-	Grewal et al., 2014 Branchetti et al., 2013
h-Calmodulin	CALM	Cytoplasm/nucleus	Cellular contraction	+	-	−/mut	Wang, et al. 2010
h-caldesmon	h-CD	Actin-associated	Cellular contraction	-	+	NA
Vimentin	VIM	Actin-associated/ cytoskeleton	Cellular contraction	-	+	+	Branchetti et al., 2013
S100 calcium-binding protein A4	S100A4	Cytoplasm/nucleus	Cellular proliferation	-	+	+	Cao et al., 2013
Osteopontin	OPN	Nucleus	Cellular proliferation	-	+	+	An et al., 2017

(h) High molecular weight; ( +) present;( -) reduced;( -/mut) reduced or mutation; NA no conclusive evidence