Intrinsic Vascular Repair by Endothelial Progenitor Cells in Acute Coronary Syndromes: an Update Overview

Bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a key role in the maintenance of endothelial homeostasis and endothelial repair at areas of vascular damage. The quantification of EPCs in peripheral blood by flow cytometry is a strategy to assess this reparative capacity. The number of c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Stem cell reviews and reports 2019-02, Vol.15 (1), p.35-47
Main Authors: Leal, Vânia, Ribeiro, Carlos Fontes, Oliveiros, Bárbara, António, Natália, Silva, Sónia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute coronary syndromes
Bone marrow
Cardiovascular diseases
Flow cytometry
Health risk assessment
Homeostasis
Myocardial infarction
Osteoprogenitor cells
Peripheral blood
Risk factors
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Summary:Bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a key role in the maintenance of endothelial homeostasis and endothelial repair at areas of vascular damage. The quantification of EPCs in peripheral blood by flow cytometry is a strategy to assess this reparative capacity. The number of circulating EPCs is inversely correlated with the number of cardiovascular risk factors and to the occurrence of cardiovascular events. Therefore, monitoring EPCs levels may provide an accurate assessment of susceptibility to cardiovascular injury, greatly improving risk stratification of patients with high cardiovascular risk, such as those with an acute myocardial infarction. However, there are many issues in the field of EPC identification and quantification that remain unsolved. In fact, there have been conflicting protocols used to the phenotypic identification of EPCs and there is still no consensual immunophenotypical profile that corresponds exactly to EPCs. In this paper we aim to give an overview on EPCs-mediated vascular repair with special focus on acute coronary syndromes and to discuss the different phenotypic profiles that have been used to identify and quantify circulating EPCs in several clinical studies. Finally, we will synthesize evidence on the prognostic role of EPCs in patients with high cardiovascular risk.
ISSN:2629-3269
2629-3277
DOI:10.1007/s12015-018-9857-2