TY - JOUR
T1 - Oral mucosa harbors a high frequency of endothelial cells
T2 - A novel postnatal cell source for angiogenic regeneration
AU - Zhou, Jian
AU - Rogers, Jason H.
AU - Lee, Scott H.
AU - Sun, Dongming
AU - Yao, Hai
AU - Mao, Jeremy J.
AU - Kong, Kimi Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
The work of the authors is supported by NIH R01AR065023, R01EB009663, and Gatorade Trust Start-Up Fund 00123001. The authors thank Dr. J. Kitajewski for helpful discussion and Dr. E. Williamson for critical review of the article.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2017, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2017.
PY - 2017/1/15
Y1 - 2017/1/15
N2 - Endothelial progenitor cells/endothelial cells (EPCs/ECs) have great potential to treat pathological conditions such as cardiac infarction, muscle ischemia, and bone fractures, but isolation of EPC/ECs from existing cell sources is challenging due to their low EC frequency. We have isolated endothelial progenitor (EP)-like cells from rat oral mucosa and characterized their yield, immunophenotype, growth, and in vivo angiogenic potential. The frequency of EP-like cells derived from oral mucosa is thousands of folds higher than EPCs derived from donor-match bone marrow samples. EP-like cells from oral mucosa were positive for EC markers CD31, VE-Cadherin, and VEGFR2. Oral mucosa-derived EP-like cells displayed robust uptake of acetylated low-density lipoprotein and formed stable capillary networks in Matrigel. Subcutaneously implanted oral mucosa-derived EP-like cells anastomosed with host blood vessels, implicating their ability to elicit angiogenesis. Similar to endothelial colony-forming cells, EP-like cells from oral mucosa have a significantly higher proliferative rate than human umbilical vein endothelial cells. These findings identify a putative EPC source that is easily accessible in the oral cavity, potentially from discarded tissue specimens, and yet with robust yield and potency for angiogenesis in tissue and organ regeneration.
AB - Endothelial progenitor cells/endothelial cells (EPCs/ECs) have great potential to treat pathological conditions such as cardiac infarction, muscle ischemia, and bone fractures, but isolation of EPC/ECs from existing cell sources is challenging due to their low EC frequency. We have isolated endothelial progenitor (EP)-like cells from rat oral mucosa and characterized their yield, immunophenotype, growth, and in vivo angiogenic potential. The frequency of EP-like cells derived from oral mucosa is thousands of folds higher than EPCs derived from donor-match bone marrow samples. EP-like cells from oral mucosa were positive for EC markers CD31, VE-Cadherin, and VEGFR2. Oral mucosa-derived EP-like cells displayed robust uptake of acetylated low-density lipoprotein and formed stable capillary networks in Matrigel. Subcutaneously implanted oral mucosa-derived EP-like cells anastomosed with host blood vessels, implicating their ability to elicit angiogenesis. Similar to endothelial colony-forming cells, EP-like cells from oral mucosa have a significantly higher proliferative rate than human umbilical vein endothelial cells. These findings identify a putative EPC source that is easily accessible in the oral cavity, potentially from discarded tissue specimens, and yet with robust yield and potency for angiogenesis in tissue and organ regeneration.
KW - angiogenesis
KW - endothelial progenitor cells
KW - oral mucosa
KW - postnatal endothelial cells
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U2 - 10.1089/scd.2016.0175
DO - 10.1089/scd.2016.0175
M3 - Article
C2 - 27832737
AN - SCOPUS:85009830238
SN - 1547-3287
VL - 26
SP - 91
EP - 101
JO - Stem Cells and Development
JF - Stem Cells and Development
IS - 2
ER -