Selective expression of TSPAN2 in vascular smooth muscle is independently regulated by TGF‐β1/SMAD and myocardin/serum response factor

Tetraspanins (TSPANs) comprise a large family of 4-transmembrane domain proteins. The importance of TSPANs in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is unexplored. Given that TGF-β1 and myocardin (MYOCD) are potent activators for VSMC differentiation, we screened for TGF-β1 and MYOCD/serum response factor (SRF)–regulated TSPANs in VSMC by using RNA-seq analyses and RNA-arrays. TSPAN2 was found to be the only TSPAN family gene induced by TGF-β1 and...