Smooth muscle cells form atherosclerotic plaques by covering cholesterol and lipids, and can secrete calcium.

“what the next thing the immune system does is once the maccrage have eaten it and sort of organized it into a pool of cholesterol is smooth muscle cell are recruited from the external surface of the arterial wall they migrate and they start covering this G this mass of cholesterol and other lipids and now you really have a distinct plaque where you have a cap on it and the cap is simply smooth muscle cells originally but these smooth muscle cells transform into more complex cells that can start secreting calcium and that gives this uh C plaque a fibrous integrity”