{"id":240044,"date":"2026-06-30T22:13:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T03:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/atherosclerosis-profiling-reveals-bhlhe40-as-a-candidate-modulator-of-vsmc"},"modified":"2026-06-30T22:13:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T03:13:44","slug":"atherosclerosis-profiling-reveals-bhlhe40-as-a-candidate-modulator-of-vsmc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/atherosclerosis-profiling-reveals-bhlhe40-as-a-candidate-modulator-of-vsmc","title":{"rendered":"Atherosclerosis Profiling Reveals BHLHE40 as a Candidate Modulator of VSMC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/atherosclerosis-profiling-reveals-bhlhe40-as-a-candidate-modulator-of-vsmc2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>BACKGROUND: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) play a central role in atherosclerosis by undergoing phenotypic modulation from a quiescent, contractile state to a range of synthetic phenotypes, including fibroblast-like, macrophage-like, and lipid-laden foam cell\u2013like states. However, a comprehensive multimodal characterization and understanding of the transcriptional programs driving these transitions remain incomplete. METHODS: To comprehensively define the phenotypic diversity of VSMCs during atherosclerosis progression, we performed in-depth profiling using cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes by sequencing and bulk RNA sequencing in a VSMC-lineage\u2013tracing atherosclerotic mouse model. Insights from these data sets guided the design of targeted in vitro experiments to investigate candidate regulatory mechanisms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BACKGROUND: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) play a central role in atherosclerosis by undergoing phenotypic modulation from a quiescent, contractile state to a range of synthetic phenotypes, including fibroblast-like, macrophage-like, and lipid-laden foam cell\u2013like states. However, a comprehensive multimodal characterization and understanding of the transcriptional programs driving these transitions remain incomplete. METHODS: To comprehensively define [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}