The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between circulating endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) levels and plasma prostacyclin (PGI2) concentrations in pulmonary hypertension (PH) rat models. Monocrotaline was used to induce PH, and the number of CD34/Flk-1-double-positive mononuclear cells in peripheral CD45-negative blood was counted by flow cytometry, which reflected EPC circu...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of i.v. CYC on the number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in patients with SSc, and the potential association of the EPC response with CYC's effect for treating interstitial lung disease (ILD). METHODS This open-label, prospective study involved 12 patients with SSc and alveolitis (CYC group). All patients received six courses of i.v. CYC (...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The objective was to evaluate the relationship between circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) and age-related white matter changes (ARWMC). Endothelial dysfunction plays a role in the development of ARWMC. EPC incorporate into sites endothelial damage and are thought to be involved in the repair of vascular risk factor induced endothelial injury. ARWMC can be eval...

OBJECTIVE Hypertension and hypercholesterolemia might interfere with renal repair mechanisms. We hypothesized that simvastatin improves the survival of endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) in the renal microenvironment imposed by concurrent renovascular hypertension and dietary hypercholesterolemia (HTC). METHODS AND RESULTS Pigs were studied after 12 weeks of no intervention (n=6), HTC (n=6), ...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of bull excretory products on the resumption of postpartum luteal function in primiparous, restricted-suckled cows. Hypotheses tested were that resumption of luteal function or proportions of cows that initiate luteal cycling did not differ among cows exposed to a bull (BE), exposed to excretory products of bulls (EPB), not exposed to a ...

BACKGROUND Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is commonly found in chronic dialysis (CD) recipients, and is associated with impaired microvascular cardiac perfusion and heart failure. In response to LVH and cardiac ischemia, early outgrowth pro-angiogenic cellS(EPCs) mobilize from the bone marrow to facilitate angiogenesis and endothelial repair. In the general population, EPC number and functi...

BACKGROUND Endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) are markers of endothelial injury and may serve as a surrogate marker for vascular repair in interventional clinical trials. Objectives of this study were to modify a method of isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and enumeration of EPC and mature endothelial cells (EC) from peripheral blood and to evaluate influence of cryopreserv...

CHANGES IN VASCULAR MORPHOLOGY and function with increasing age clearly are significant contributors to age-related increases in cardiovascular disease (CVD). In addition, the presence of CVD risk factors, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and smoking, have been shown to cause endothelial dysfunction, an early marker of atherosclerosis and CVD. Regular physical activity is not onl...

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are essential in vasculogenesis and wound healing, but their circulating and wound level numbers are decreased in diabetes. This study aimed to determine mechanisms responsible for the diabetic defect in circulating and wound EPCs. Since mobilization of BM EPCs occurs via eNOS activation, we hypothesized that eNOS activation is impaired in diabetes, which res...

BACKGROUND Continued development of in-vitro procedures for expansion and differentiation of erythroid progenitor cells (EPC) is essential not only in hematology and stem cell research but also virology, in light of the strict erythrotropism of the clinically important human parvovirus B19. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We cultured EPC directly from ordinary blood samples, without ex vivo st...