Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality; however, the mechanisms that are involved in disease initiation and progression are incompletely understood. Extracellular matrix proteins play an integral role in modulating vascular homeostasis in health and disease. Here, we determined that the expression of the matricellular protein CCN3 is strongly reduced in rodent AAA models, including angiotensin II–induced AAA and elastase perfusion–stimulated AAA. CCN3 levels were also reduced in human AAA biopsies compared with those in controls. In murine models of induced AAA, germline deletion of
Chao Zhang, Dustin van der Voort, Hong Shi, Rongli Zhang, Yulan Qing, Shuichi Hiraoka, Minoru Takemoto, Koutaro Yokote, Joseph V. Moxon, Paul Norman, Laure Rittié, Helena Kuivaniemi, G. Brandon Atkins, Stanton L. Gerson, Guo-Ping Shi, Jonathan Golledge, Nianguo Dong, Bernard Perbal, Domenick A. Prosdocimo, Zhiyong Lin
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