TGFBR1 and atherosclerosis: While the role of these ion channels, receptors, and integrins that are known to be mechanosensors has yet to be fully elucidated in the context of EndMT, a recent study has demonstrated that the receptor Alk5 and downstream Shc were crucial to sensing shear stress and modulating EndMT in atherosclerosis (Mehta et al., 2021).