# Identifying an Atherogenic Role for Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell miR-33a Expression

> **NIH NIH R15** · CLEMSON UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $443,688

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Atherosclerosis is a disease that is the result of cholesterol accumulating within arteries. Atherosclerosis is the
leading cause of death both within the United States and worldwide due to this disease being the primary cause
of myocardial infarctions and ischemic strokes. Therefore, improving therapies for atherosclerosis may drastically
decrease the number of deaths from ischemic strokes and myocardial infarctions. Preventing cholesterol
accumulation within arteries via increasing the removal of cholesterol in the smooth muscle cells of arteries is
one potential strategy to treat atherosclerosis. Excessive cholesterol accumulation in arterial smooth muscle
cells may be caused by miR-33a expression in these cells, since miR-33a promotes cellular cholesterol retention,
and therefore inhibiting miR-33a in arterial smooth muscle cells may be atheroprotective. The goal of this project
is to test whether miR-33a expression in arterial smooth muscle cells is pro-atherogenic.
There is 1 in vitro Aim and 1 in vivo Aim. The in vitro Aim tests whether inhibiting miR-33a in cultured vascular
smooth muscle cells increases the removal of cholesterol via enhancing cholesterol efflux. The in vivo Aim tests
whether deleting miR-33a in vascular smooth muscle cells decreases lipid content and reduces lesion area within
the aortas of fat-fed pro-atherogenic mouse models.
Success with both Specific Aims will imply that miR-33a expression within arterial smooth muscle cells is pro-
atherogenic and this is at least partially due to decreasing intracellular cholesterol efflux. Therefore, achievement
of these Aims will show proof-of-concept that inhibiting miR-33a specifically in arterial smooth muscle cells may
be an innovative approach to treating atherosclerosis.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10202932
- **Project number:** 1R15HL152261-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** CLEMSON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Alexis Stamatikos
- **Activity code:** R15 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $443,688
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10202932

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10202932, Identifying an Atherogenic Role for Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell miR-33a Expression (1R15HL152261-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10202932. Licensed CC0.

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