Identification of two distinct populations of endothelial progenitor cells differing in size and antigen expression from human umbilical cord blood.

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have been isolated from peripheral blood, bone marrow, and umbilical cord blood (CB) and determined to be in heterogeneous populations; however, specific variations in their characteristics remain to be clarified. In this study, we observed that mononuclear cells (MNCs) of CB change in morphology to differentiate into mature endothelial cells (EC) after 6 weeks of culture. In early days of culture along with the differentiation, two distinct populations of EPCs were detected, defined by two-dimensional dot plots (forward scatter vs side scatter) with flow cytometry, namely, relatively small cells (S-EPCs) and relatively large cells (L-EPCs). S-EPCs were found to express CD34 but not CD14, while the converse was the case for L-EPCs. When CD34(+)/CD14(-) cells and CD34(-)/CD14(+) cells were isolated from original MNCs of CB and cultured independently, S-EPCs and L-EPCs were derived from CD34(+)/CD14(-) and from CD34(-)/CD14(+) cells, respectively. Furthermore, when the two EPCs at day 7 were separated by cell sorter and recultured, there was no crossover in terms of CD34 and CD14 expression. While expression of VE-cadherin and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) on L-EPCs was significantly greater than on S-EPCs, levels of CD31 were lower. In addition, L-EPCs exhibited greater proliferative ability on stimulation with VEGF. Although these two EPCs expressed different phenotypes, including growth factor receptors, and had different proliferative ability, they both eventually differentiated into mature ECs after more than 3 weeks of culture.