Developmental studies have demonstrated that the vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) present within the elastic arteries are differentiated from two definitive origins, the neural crest and the mesoderm. Cells from these distinct progenitors differ in their ability to determine long-range spatial order of the extracellular matrix, in proliferative responses, and in the expression of critical proteins. The present study utilizes collagen gel contraction assays and the analysis of integrin receptor subunit expression to evaluate cell-matrix interactions. In the presence of serum and transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF) or TGF-beta 1 alone, VSMC isolated from the abdominal aorta (AA-VSMC) were found to contract collagen matrices to a significantly greater extent than VSMC from the thoracic aorta (TA-VSMC). However, in TA-VSMC, beta 1 integrin and gel contraction were stimulated only in the presence of serum factors. Metabolic labeling and immunoprecipitation of integrin subunits revealed that TGF-beta 1 induced beta 1 and alpha 5 integrin subunits in AA-VSMC four-and ninefold, respectively. AA-VSMC gel contraction stimulated by serum and TGF-beta 1 alone was inhibited with anti-beta 1 integrin antibody by 70 and 100%, respectively. However, the beta 1 integrin-specific antibody inhibited serum-induced TA-VSMC gel contraction by 25%. The data suggest that vascular smooth muscle cell ontogeny is an important determinant of cell function, phenotype, and response to growth factors such as TGF-beta 1.