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Tissue-engineered blood vessels (TEBVs) are promising in the replacement of diseased vascular tissues. However, it remains a great challenge to obtain a sufficient number of functional smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in a clinical setting to construct patient-specific TEBVs. In addition, it is critical to develop a scaffold to accommodate these cells and retain their functional phenotype for the regeneration of TEBVs. In this study, human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were established from primary human aortic fibroblasts, and characterized with the pluripotency markers expression and cells' capabilities to differentiate into all three germ layer cells. A highly efficient method was then developed to induce these human iPSCs into proliferative SMCs. After multiple times of expansion, the expanded SMCs retained the potential to be induced into the functional contractile phenotype of mature SMCs, which was …