Focal Adhesion Kinase Drives Rho/ROCK and mTOR Signaling to Protect and Augment Aortic Dissections
Dysfunctional mechanosensing via focal adhesions (FAs) significantly contributes to thoracic aortic dissection in the β-aminopropionitrile mouse model by triggering FA kinase activation and subsequent Rho/ROCK and mTOR signaling pathways. The present findings indicate that these signaling pathways play distinct roles in ascending vs descending dissections. Specifically, in the ascending aorta, smooth muscle cell FA kinase-Rho/ROCK signaling acts as a beneficial adaptive mechanism to prevent dissections, whereas mTOR signaling is pathogenic and contributes to dissections.
Authors
- Daniel R. Martin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3517-3716)
- Pujun Guan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7288-9369)
- Scott A. LeMaire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8736-4266)
- Yuki I. Kawamura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2137-6464)
- Dar Weiss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6097-6038)
- Jay D. Humphrey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1011-2025)
- Kartik Venkatachalam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3055-9265)
- Ying H. Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4119-115X)
- L. Maximilian Buja (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8386-7029)
- Zhouxuan Li
- Alexis Richard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4461-1341)
- Ripon Sarkar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1393-6222)
- Dianna M. Milewicz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7806-0068)
- Tomáš Vaisar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7406-6606)
- Chen Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1468-2906)
- Yanming Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8213-9166)
- Yang Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5481-5382)
- Zhen Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9125-9581)
Institutions
- University of Denver (US)
- Texas Medical Center (US)
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (US)
- Cambridge School (PT)
- The University of Texas Health Science Center (US)
- Geisinger Neuroscience Institute (US)
- China Medical University (CN)
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- JACC Basic to Translational Science
- Published
- 2025-08-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacbts.2025.101353
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Aortic aneurysm repair treatments
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.04