RUNX2 and atherosclerosis: They showed that RUNX2 was important in regulating the expression of many factors, including RANKL, which is the key protein in the interplay between venous smooth muscle cells and macrophages and contributes to the pathogenesis of vascular calcification and atherosclerosis (Lin, Chen, Leaf, Speer, & Giachelli, 2015; Sun et al., 2012).