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. 2022 May 23;13:907835. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.907835

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Copyright © 2022 Pan, Pi, Ruan, Zheng, Zhang and Liu.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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(A) Medial calcification and Intimal calcification. In medial calcification, minerals are mainly deposited in the medial layer of blood vessels and usually associated with CKD, diabetes, osteoporosis and hypertension. In intimal calcification, minerals are primarily deposited in the intimal of the blood vessels and develop from microcalcifications to large plaques, usually associated with atherosclerosis and hyperlipidemia. CKD: chronic kidney disease. (B) Comparison of contractile VSMC and synthetic VSMC. VSMCs paly an important role in medial calcification and can undergo a phenotypic transition from a physical contractile phenotype to a pathological synthetic phenotype, lossing contractile markers like SMα-A, SMα-22, SM-1 and SM-2 and expressing mineralization-related markers like Runx2, SP7, ALP, osteopontin and Sox9.