vascular associated smooth muscle cell dedifferentiation
vascular associated smooth muscle cell dedifferentiation
The process in which a vascular smooth muscle cell (a non-striated, elongated, spindle-shaped cell found lining the blood vessels) loses the structural or functional features that characterize it in the mature organism, or some other relatively stable phase of the organism's life history. Under certain conditions, these cells can revert back to the features of the stem cells that were their ancestors.