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Review
. 2020 Sep 21;11(4):629-643.
doi: 10.1007/s13167-020-00223-0. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Endothelial progenitor cells as the target for cardiovascular disease prediction, personalized prevention, and treatments: progressing beyond the state-of-the-art

Fang Kou  1 , Chao Zhu  1 , Hongjiang Wan  1 , Fulong Xue  1 , Jianfeng Wang  1 , Lijie Xiang  2 , Jingan Li  1
Affiliations
Review

Endothelial progenitor cells as the target for cardiovascular disease prediction, personalized prevention, and treatments: progressing beyond the state-of-the-art

Fang Kou et al. EPMA J. .

Abstract

Stimulated by the leading mortalities of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), various types of cardiovascular biomaterials have been widely investigated in the past few decades. Although great therapeutic effects can be achieved by bare metal stents (BMS) and drug-eluting stents (DES) within months or years, the long-term complications such as late thrombosis and restenosis have limited their further applications. It is well accepted that rapid endothelialization is a promising approach to eliminate these complications. Convincing evidence has shown that endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) could be mobilized into the damaged vascular sites systemically and achieve endothelial repair in situ, which significantly contributes to the re-endothelialization process. Therefore, how to effectively capture EPCs via specific molecules immobilized on biomaterials is an important point to achieve rapid endothelialization. Further, in the context of predictive, preventive, personalized medicine (PPPM), the abnormal number alteration of EPCs in circulating blood and certain inflammation responses can also serve as important indicators for predicting and preventing early cardiovascular disease. In this contribution, we mainly focused on the following sections: the definition and classification of EPCs, the mechanisms of EPCs in treating CVDs, the potential diagnostic role of EPCs in predicting CVDs, as well as the main strategies for cardiovascular biomaterials to capture EPCs.

Keywords: Cardiovascular biomaterials; EPC-specific molecules; Endothelial progenitor cell capturing stent; Endothelial progenitor cells; Predictive diagnostics; Predictive preventive personalized medicine (PPPM/3PM); Rapid endothelialization; Targeted prevention.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a The characteristics of eEPCs and b the characteristics of lEPCs
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The schematic diagram of vascular repair by capturing circulating EPCs. After being recognized by specific molecules on cardiovascular biomaterials, the EPCs can home into the damaged sites where they differentiate into endothelial cells, thereby accelerating the re-endothelialization process. NO, released by the EPCs and mature ECs, could simultaneously inhibit the adhesion of platelets and SMCs, as well as promoting the growth of ECs
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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