Coronary collateral growth is a process involving coordination between growth factors expressed in response to ischemia and mechanical forces. Underlying this response is proliferation of vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells, resulting in an enlargement in the caliber of arterial-arterial anastomoses, i.e., a collateral vessel, sometimes as much as an order of magnitude. An integral element of this cell proliferation is the process known as phenotypic switching in which cells of a particular phenotype, e.g., contractile vascular smooth muscle, must change their phenotype to proliferate. Phenotypic switching requires that protein synthesis occurs and different kinase signaling pathways become activated, necessitating energy to make the switch. Moreover, kinases, using ATP to phosphorylate their targets, have an energy requirement themselves. Mitochondria play a key role in the energy production that enables phenotypic switching, but under conditions where mitochondrial energy production is constrained, e.g., mitochondrial oxidative stress, this switch is impaired. In addition, we discuss the potential importance of uncoupling proteins as modulators of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production and bioenergetics, as well as the role of AMP kinase as an energy sensor upstream of mammalian target of rapamycin, the master regulator of protein synthesis.
miR‐21 normalizes vascular smooth muscle proliferation and improves coronary collateral growth in metabolic syndrome