Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, CHU Besançon, EA 3920, IFR 133, University of Franche-Comté, Besancon, France.
Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2011 Jul;40(1):e6-12. doi: 10.1016/j.ejcts.2011.02.065. Epub 2011 Apr 9.
Circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are a specialized subset of stem/progenitor cells found in bone marrow. They participate in neo-vascularization of injured vessels and predict cardiovascular outcome in patient at risk. Several factors influence their migration and proliferation, among which is the widely studied stromal-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α). In cardiovascular disease, regarding thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs), few studies have investigated the levels of EPC and SDF-1α. As rupture, acute dissection and hematoma are acute complications of idiopathic ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (iATAA) that increase with the size of aneurysm, we aimed to evaluate a potential relationship between circulating EPC and SDF-1α and iATAA size.
The aneurysm size of 27 consecutive patients suffering from iATAA and scheduled for surgery was assessed by computed tomography scan. In all patients, we measured levels of circulating EPCs by flow cytometer, and plasma levels of SDF-1α the day before surgery.
The median aneurysm size was 54 mm (interquartile range (IQR): 50.0-58.8]. The EPC levels of CD34+/CD144+/CD14- and CD34+/VEGF-R2+/CD14- were inversely correlated to aneurysm diameter (p = 0.038, r = -0.424 and p = 0.0046, r = -0.65, respectively) before surgery. Conversely, plasma levels of SDF-1α were positively correlated to aneurysm size (p = 0.042; r = 0.47).
Our findings indicate that EPC levels may be useful for monitoring ascending aorta aneurysms and that SDF-1α could be a biomarker of iATAA expansion.
循环内皮祖细胞（EPC）是骨髓中发现的一种专门的干细胞/祖细胞亚群。它们参与受损血管的新生血管形成，并预测有风险的患者的心血管结局。有许多因素影响其迁移和增殖，其中广泛研究的基质衍生因子-1α（SDF-1α）就是其中之一。在心血管疾病中，关于胸主动脉瘤（TAA），很少有研究调查 EPC 和 SDF-1α 的水平。由于破裂、急性夹层和血肿是特发性升主动脉瘤（iATAA）的急性并发症，且随着动脉瘤的增大而增加，我们旨在评估循环 EPC 和 SDF-1α 与 iATAA 大小之间的潜在关系。
通过计算机断层扫描评估 27 例连续患有 iATAA 并计划接受手术的患者的动脉瘤大小。在所有患者中，我们通过流式细胞仪测量循环 EPC 的水平，并在手术前一天测量 SDF-1α 的血浆水平。
动脉瘤的中位数为 54 毫米（四分位距（IQR）：50.0-58.8]。术前 CD34+/CD144+/CD14-和 CD34+/VEGF-R2+/CD14-的 EPC 水平与动脉瘤直径呈负相关（p = 0.038，r = -0.424 和 p = 0.0046，r = -0.65）。相反，SDF-1α 的血浆水平与动脉瘤大小呈正相关（p = 0.042；r = 0.47）。
我们的发现表明，EPC 水平可能有助于监测升主动脉瘤，而 SDF-1α 可能是 iATAA 扩张的生物标志物。
