Fibulin-4 deficiency differentially affects cytoskeleton structure and dynamics as well as TGFβ signaling

Fibulin-4 is an extracellular matrix (ECM) protein essential for elastogenesis and mutations in this protein lead to aneurysm formation. In this study, we isolated vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from mice with reduced fibulin-4 protein expression (Fibulin-4R/R) and from mice with a smooth muscle cell specific deletion of the Fibulin-4 gene (Fibulin-4f/−/SM22Cre+). We subsequently analyzed and compared the molecular consequences of reduced...