MAPK3 and diabetes mellitus: Although the mechanistic study has shown that several signaling pathways are involved in the regulation of VSMC calcification in DM combined with AS, such as phosphatidylinositol-4-diphosphate 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) and the ERK1/2 MAPK signaling pathway [7, 8], no targeted therapy has been developed till now.