On May 20, the research team from the department of Vascular Surgery, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, doctoral student Du Mingyuan supervised by Prof. Shu Chang, the “famous doctor of Xiangya”, and Prof. Delphine Gomez from University of Pittsburgh, USA, worked together to publish an original article titled miRNA/mRNA co-profiling identifies the miR-200 family as a central regulator of SMC quiescence in iScience, where miRNA/mRNA sequencing, bioinformatics tools and molecular biology were employed to conduct a systematic study and a conclusion was drawn that miR-200 is a new functionally relevant miRNA family that can mediate smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotypic modulation and injury-induced vascular remodeling.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the primary causes of death among Chinese, accounting for 40% of the causes of death from disease in China. Among them, Carotid artery stenosis and atherosclerosis are particularly major clinical issues, dominating the spectrum of diseases in China. This research constructed the shift of miRNA/mRNA transcriptional profiling during SMC dedifferentiation, analyzed the overall miRNA function during SMC dedifferentiation, and identified the function and mechanism of miR-200 in repressing SMC phenotypic modulation and of injury-induced vascular remodeling in the cellular and animal model level. This study unraveled the substantial contribution of miRNAs in regulating the SMC transcriptome and identified the miR-200 cluster as a pro-quiescence mechanism and a potential inhibitor of vascular restenosis. The study is reported orally for 15 minutes in American Heart Association-Vascular Discovery, and its abstract was published in North American Vascular Biology Organization. Prof. Mete Civelek from University of Virginia, USA gave high praises to the study.

This international co-authored paper was supported by Prof. Shu Chang, the “famous doctor of Xiangya” and Prof. Delphine Gomez from University of Pittsburgh. Eight-year doctoral student Du Mingyuan is the first author, who has been selected in the “Eight-year Medical Student Leading Talent Training Innovation Drive Program”. This work is supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University to M.D..

The research team led by Prof. Shu Chang from the department of Vascular Surgery, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University has long studied the basic and clinical issues in vascular disease. They work closely with research teams at home and abroad and in recent years have published many important articles in New England Journal of Medicine, JACC Cardiovascular Interventions, Radiology, Kidney International, European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and JAMA Cardiology.