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Review
. 2021 Aug 5:15:608656.
doi: 10.3389/fncel.2021.608656. eCollection 2021.

Advances of Endothelial Progenitor Cells in the Development of Depression

Nana Yang  1   2 , Shiyu Sun  1 , Guangqing Duan  3 , Kaixuan Lv  1 , Chen Liang  4 , Linlin Zhang  1 , Jielun Yu  1   2 , Yaohui Tang  5 , Guohua Lu  6
Affiliations
Review

Advances of Endothelial Progenitor Cells in the Development of Depression

Nana Yang et al. Front Cell Neurosci. .

Abstract

Depression is a major psychological disease of human beings. With the severity of depression, it elevates the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially acute coronary syndrome (ACS), resulting in serious harm to human health. The number of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) is closely related to the development of depression. It has been reported that the number of peripheral blood EPCs in patients with depression was reduced. However, effects on the function of EPCs in depression are still unclear. This paper aims to analyze and summarize the research of EPCs in depression, and we envision that EPCs might act as a new target for evaluating the severity of depression and its complications.

Keywords: TNF-α; cardiovascular disease; depression; endothelial progenitor cells; psychological disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The effect of depression on EPCs numbers and functions. The level of TNF-α, CRP, and IL-6 in peripheral blood of patients with depression are higher than that of healthy subjects, and the level of TNF-α, CRP, and IL-6 have a negative correlation with EPCs numbers. TNF-α and CRP can inhibit the functions of EPCs, such as adhesion, proliferation, migration and angiogenesis in vitro study. Whether depression can affect the above functions of EPCs through TNF-α or other inflammatory factors will require further studies.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Inflammatory cytokines, depression, CAD, and EPCs dysfunction generate a positive feedback loop. Depression increases the levels of circulating inflammatory cytokines, such as CRP, TNF-α, IL-6 etc., which damage vascular intima, decrease the number of EPCs, and inhibit the functions of EPCs. Dysfunction of EPCs cannot repair the impaired vascular intima, which further stimulates the release of inflammatory factors and induces the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular. Antidepressants, that inhibit inflammatory cytokines, may reduce the risk of mortality from CAD through improving EPCs functions and repairing intima damage.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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