Rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASMCs; Lonza) were cultured as previously described (Rahaman et al., 2017 (link)). In brief, RASMCs were cultured at 37°C in Lonza Smooth Muscle Growth Medium-2 with SmGm-2 SingleQuot kit (Lonza) supplementation. Cells were passaged using Gibco Trypsin/EDTA up to passage 12. For treatment, FoxO inhibitor AS1842856 (Cayman) was dissolved in DMSO at 10 mM stock concentration and diluted in DMSO for further experiments. Control and treatment DMSO concentration was 0.1% of the total volume for treatment periods.