HINT1 and aortic aneurysm: To evaluate whether the effects of HINT1 on aortic aneurysm rely on its regulation of ITGA6 in vivo, we injected lentivirus vectors encoding control (Lenti-Ctrl) or Itga6 (Lenti-Itga6) with reverse loxP sites, which can be recognized by Cre recombinase, into Apoe–/–/Hint1SMKO and Apoe–/–/Hint1fl/fl littermates through the tail vein to specifically overexpress Itga6 in VSMCs.