Background Restenosis is one of the main bottlenecks in restricting the further development of cardiovascular interventional therapy. New signaling molecules involved in the progress have continuously been discovered; however, the specific molecular mechanisms remain unclear. MTMR14 (myotubularin-related protein 14) is a novel phosphoinositide phosphatase that has a variety of biological functions and is involved in diverse biological processes. However, the role of MTMR14 in vascular biology remains unclear. Herein, we addressed the role of MTMR14 in neointima formation and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation after vessel injury. Methods and Results Vessel injury models were established using SMC-specific conditional MTMR14-knockout and -transgenic mice. Neointima formation was assessed by histopathological methods, and VSMC proliferation and migration were assessed using fluorescence ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicator, transwell, and scratch wound assay. Neointima formation and the expression of MTMR14 was increased after injury. MTMR14 deficiency accelerated neointima formation and promoted VSMC proliferation after injury, whereas MTMR14 overexpression remarkably attenuated this process. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that MTMR14 suppressed the activation of PLK1 (polo-like kinase 1) by interacting with it, which further leads to the inhibition of the activation of MEK/ERK/AKT (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase/extracellular-signal-regulated kinase/protein kinase B), thereby inhibiting the proliferation of VSMC from the medial to the intima and thus preventing neointima formation. Conclusions MTMR14 prevents neointima formation and VSMC proliferation by inhibiting PLK1. Our findings reveal that MTMR14 serves as an inhibitor of VSMC proliferation and establish a link between MTMR14 and PLK1 in regulating VSMC proliferation. MTMR14 may become a novel potential therapeutic target in the treatment of restenosis.
Keywords: MTMR14; PLK1; VSMC; neointima formation; proliferation.