In Vitro Lineage-Specific Differentiation of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells in Response to SMAD3 Deficiency

Objective: SMAD3 pathogenic variants are associated with the development of thoracic aortic aneurysms. We sought to determine the role of SMAD3 in lineage-specific vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) differentiation and function. Approach and Results: SMAD3 c.652delA, a frameshift mutation and nonsense-mediated decay, was introduced in human-induced pluripotent stem cells using CRISPR-Cas9. The wild-type and SMAD3 −/− (c.652delA) human-induced...