TP53 and chronic kidney disease: This result indicates that inhibition of expression p53 in VSMCs may be involved in the pathogenesis of vascular calcification.13 To further investigate the effects of p53 on the osteogenic differentiation of VSMCs, we used wild-type (p53+/+) and p53-deficient (p53–/–) mice in this study to construct animal models of CKD-associated vascular calcification.