Dore-Duffy Paula
Department of Neurology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 421 East Canfield Avenue, 3126 Elliman Clinical Research Building, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA.
Curr Pharm Des. 2008;14(16):1581-93. doi: 10.2174/138161208784705469.
Pericytes were described nearly 140 years ago by the French scientist Charles-Marie Benjamin Rouget and were referred to as the Rouget cell. The Rouget cell was renamed primarily due to its anatomical location in the endothelium. Pericytes are important cellular constituents of the capillaries and post capillary venules and are located abluminal to the endothelial cells and luminal to parenchymal cells. They deposit elements of the basal lamina and are totally surrounded by this vascular component. Despite many years of investigation since their discovery, the role of this intriguing cell still remains a mystery, in part, due to the difficulty of studying this cell in vivo, due to the difficulty of isolating pure primary pericytes, and due to the lack of a pericyte specific marker. Pericytes are thought to be local regulatory cells and important to the maintenance of homeostasis and hemostasis. In the brain, pericytes are in active communication with the cells of the neurovascular unit and make fine-tuned regulatory adjustments in response to stress stimuli. These adaptations at the vascular level form the basis for functional and phenotypic changes that include differentiation along mesenchymal and neurological lineages, and lend credence to the supposition that pericytes are multipotential stems cells in the adult brain and in other tissues. This review will consider evidence that pericytes are stem cells derived from historical work and from more recent literature, and will attempt to dispel a number of misconceptions about the pericyte that has lead to confusion in the literature. We will also speculate on the importance of pericyte stem cell activity in survival and DNA repair and how dysregulation of pericyte function may lead to disease.
近140年前，法国科学家查尔斯 - 玛丽·本杰明·鲁热首次描述了周细胞，并将其称为鲁热细胞。鲁热细胞主要因其在内皮中的解剖位置而被重新命名。周细胞是毛细血管和毛细血管后微静脉的重要细胞成分，位于内皮细胞的管腔外和实质细胞的管腔内。它们沉积基膜成分，并被这种血管成分完全包围。尽管自发现以来经过了多年研究，但这种有趣细胞的作用仍然是个谜，部分原因在于在体内研究这种细胞存在困难，难以分离出纯的原代周细胞，以及缺乏周细胞特异性标志物。周细胞被认为是局部调节细胞，对维持体内平衡和止血很重要。在大脑中，周细胞与神经血管单元的细胞积极通信，并在应激刺激下进行微调调节。血管水平的这些适应性变化构成了功能和表型变化的基础，这些变化包括沿间充质和神经谱系的分化，这也支持了周细胞是成体大脑和其他组织中多能干细胞的假设。本综述将考虑周细胞是干细胞的证据，这些证据来自历史研究和最新文献，并将试图消除一些关于周细胞的误解，这些误解在文献中导致了混淆。我们还将推测周细胞干细胞活性在生存和DNA修复中的重要性，以及周细胞功能失调如何可能导致疾病。
