INTRODUCTION Despite the crucial role of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in vascular regeneration, the specific interactions between EPCs and hematopoietic cells remain unclear. METHODS In EPC colony forming assays, we first demonstrated that the formation of EPC colonies was drastically increased in the coculture of CD34+ and CD34- cells, and determined the optimal concentrations of CD34...

BACKGROUND Administration of endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) represents a promising option to regenerate the heart after myocardial infarction, but is limited because of low recruitment and engraftment in the myocardium. Mobilization and migration of EPC are mainly controlled by stromal cell-derived factor 1α (SDF-1α) and its receptor CXCR4. We hypothesized that adenosine, a cardioprotective...

BACKGROUND New vessel formation plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of neovascular-related diseases. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were found to contribute to neovascular-related diseases and interference with EPC neovascularization may be a novel target for these diseases. Zoledronate (Zol) was reported to exhibit anti-angiogenic effect. Basing on these evidences, we proposed that Z...

Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) and their progenitors (EPC) are restricted subpopulations of peripheral blood (PB), cord blood (CB), and bone marrow (BM) cells, involved in the endothelial homeostasis maintenance. Both CEC and EPC are thought to represent potential biomarkers in several clinical conditions involving endothelial turnover/remodeling. Although different flow cytometry methods ...

Objective Chronic hyperuricemia is associated with cardiovascular disease, but its impact on endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) and ischemia-induced neovascularization remains unclear. Herein we investigated whether chronic hyperuricemia could impede blood flow recovery in response to tissue ischemia by suppression of EPC. Methods Human EPC were isolated and cultured in a high-level uric acid...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of extract of Panax quinquefolius and Corydalis tuber (EPC) on platelet activation and the hypercoagulable state in rats with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The MI model in Wistar rats was induced by coronary artery ligation. Sham surgery was performed as a control. The surviving rats that underwent MI surgery were divided into con...

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), ...