Telokin is expressed at very high levels in intestinal, urinary, and reproductive tract smooth muscle, at lower levels in vascular smooth muscle, and at undetectable levels in skeletal or cardiac muscle or nonmuscle tissues. Although telokin is strongly activated by myocardin and myocardin is highly expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells, there is relatively little expression of telokin in these cells. This suggests that an inhibitory factor must be attenuating the activity of the telokin promoter in vascular smooth muscle cells. One possible candidate for this inhibitory factor is GATA-6