TERT and atherosclerosis: In SMCs, telomerase activity is requiredfor cell proliferation, and disruption of telomerase activityreduces atherosclerosis and neointima formation [71–73].TERT is the limiting factor for telomerase activation in response to mitogenicstimuli and TERT antisense oligonucleotides inhibit SMC proliferation [71, 72].This suggests that TERT may play an important role in the regulation of SMCproliferation and neointima formation.