Intimal hyperplasia is a reaction to vascular injury, which is the primary reason for vascular restenosis caused by the diagnostic or therapeutic procedure for cardiovascular diseases. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are known to be associated with several cardiovascular conditions, but the expression of circRNAs in the neointima has not been reported in detail. In this study, we established the balloonâinjured rat carotid artery model and detected the expression of circRNAs in the carotid arteries with a microarray. We found that the circRNA expression profile of the healthy carotid arteries and the injured arteries were significantly different. We investigated the role of rnoâcirc_005717 (circDiaph3) in the differentiation of rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). We found that knockdown of circDiaph3 upâregulated the level of diaphanousârelated forminâ3 and promoted the differentiation of VSMCs to contractile type. In addition, circDiaph3 upâregulated the transcription of Igf1r and supported the proliferation and migration of VSMCs. circDiaph3 could be a molecular target to combat intimal hyperplasia.âXu, J.âY., Chang, N.âB., Rong, Z.âH., Li, T., Xiao, L., Yao, Q.âP., Jiang, R., Jiang, J. circDiaph3 regulates rat vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation, proliferation, and migration. FASEB J. 33, 2659â2668 (2019). http://www.fasebj.org