Vascular wall-linked protein, or Vasculin, is primarily expressed in the arterial wall and in plasma. It is also differentially expressed in human atherogenesis. Alternative splicing of exon 3 of the Vasculin gene produces three variants. Vasculin binds to and activates the minimal self-sufficient promoter element (MSPE) of the mouse Ada gene promoter and binds to and partially suppresses the GC-rich promoter of the nonhomologous human TOP2A gene promoter. It acts as a nuclear factor that can form complexes with TATA-binding proteins, transcription factors TFIIB and TFIIF, RNA polymerase II and p300. The regulated expression of Vasculin in plaques suggests that it may be involved in atherogenesis, and its presence in plasma may implicate Vasculin as a marker for atherosclerosis.
