Vol.26 No.3£¨2004 June£©£º281-284 SM22¦Á: A Maker of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Differentiation CHENG Yun Hui, HAN Mei*, WEN Jin Kun £¨Hebei Laboratory of Medical Biotechnology, Institute of Basic Medicine, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050017, China£© Abstract: SM22¦Á is one of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) marker genes, and encodes a 22 kDa contraction-associated protein. SM22¦Á gene is characterized by simple structure and restricted expression in differentiated VSMC. Thus, it has widely been used to study the regulatory mechanisms of VSMC-specific gene expression. On the basis of the features of its expression, recombinant promoters containing SM22¦Á regulatory region have been developed, and serve as a tool for gene therapy to trigger the target protein expression in VSMC. Key words: SM22¦Á; vascular smooth muscle cell; differentiation; transcriptional regulation *Corresponding author, E-mail: WJK@hebmu.edu.cn |