Vascular calcification is highly prevalent in ageing, atherosclerosis, diabetes and chronic kidney disease, and associated with morbidity and mortality of myocardial infarction. As more investigation input in this field, the better understanding of vascular calcification has been achieved. This review focuses on the molecular mechanism of vascular calcification, including osteogenic transition of vascular smooth muscle cell, defects in calcification inhibitors, disorders of calcium and phosphate homeostasis, oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, autophagy, extracellular matrix remodeling and microRNAs. In this column, several research groups have conducted the in-depth studies on the role of activated T-cell cytoplasmic 1 in the progression of diabetic vascular calcification, the relationship between the ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes and coronary calcification in dialysis patients, and the effect of Dendrobium huoshanense on atherosclerosis and vascular calcification in LDLR gene knockout mice induced by high-fat food feeding.