Figure 1. Mechanisms that may underlie oligoclonal VSMC lesion contribution.

Mature vascular lesions show contribution from few VSMC clones. Oligoclonality could arise from selective mechanisms at the level of activation of cell proliferation (A) or intimal invasion of expanding VSMC clones (B) or be due to competition for survival (C). Differential success between VSMC clones at each stage could be due to stochastic differences in environmental signals or to cell-intrinsic differences between clones. These mechanisms are not mutually exclusive. IEL: internal elastic lamina, EEL: external elastic lamina.