OBJECTIVES Patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) suffer considerable morbidity and mortality despite advances in therapy. Treatment with erythropoietin (Epo) has shown promise in CHF patients, yet its mechanisms of action remain elusive. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) contribute to postnatal angiogenesis and vasculogenesis, and Epo was shown to promote EPC mobilization. We explored t...

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are recruited to ischemic regions and improve neovascularization. Integrins contribute to EPC homing. High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a nuclear protein that is released extracellularly on cell necrosis and tissue damage, eliciting a proinflammatory response and stimulating tissue repair. In the present study, we investigated the effects of HMGB1 on EPC h...

Low-cost RFID tags are already being used for supply chain management and are a promising new technology that can be used to support the security of wireless ubiquitous applications. However current RFID technology is designed to optimize performance, with less attention paid to resilience and security. In this paper we analyze some of the most common types of attack on RFID tags: unauthorized ...

BACKGROUND The current understanding of the functional characteristics of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) is limited, especially in patients affected by cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we have analyzed the in vitro clonogenic capacity of circulating EPC, also known as endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFC), in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), in comparison to...

OBJECTIVE A pilot study to determine endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) number in children with Juvenile Dermatomyositis (JDM). METHODS After obtaining informed consent, the EPC number from 34 fasting children with definite/probable JDM at various stages of therapy-initially untreated, active disease on medication and clinically inactive, off medication-was compared with 13 healthy fasting pe...

The deployment of endovascular implants such as stents in the treatment of cardiovascular disease damages the vascular endothelium, increasing the risk of thrombosis and promoting neointimal hyperplasia. The rapid restoration of a functional endothelium is known to reduce these complications. Circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are increasingly recognized as important contributors t...

The number and properties of endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) in disease states is of considerable interest due to the importance attributed to this distinct cell population. However, there has been no study comparing each of the methods employed in the same sampled individuals. Herein, we performed an analysis of several methods used for circulating EPC assessment and correlated them with hu...

In this paper EPML is presented as an interchange format for EPC business process models. EPML builds on EPC syntax related work and is designed to be applicable as a serialisation format for EPC modelling tools. After a description of EPML in the large, examples are given to illustrate selected representational aspects including flat and hierarchical EPCs, business views, and graphical informa...

Numerical and functional impairment of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) is thought to contribute to vascular aging and the associated increase in cardiovascular risk. We tested the following hypotheses: 1) EPC clonogenic and migratory capacity decrease progressively with age in healthy, sedentary adult men; and 2) regular aerobic exercise will improve EPC clonogenic and migratory...