1st Cardiology Unit, Athens University Medical School, Greece.
Curr Med Chem. 2012;19(16):2597-604. doi: 10.2174/092986712800492995.
Experimental studies suggest that bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play an important role in the maintenance of endothelial integrity and hemostasis. The number of circulating EPC has been shown to be inversely correlated with cardiovascular risk factors and vascular function and to predict cardiovascular events independent of both traditional and non-traditional risk factors. Thus, EPCs provide a clinical advantage over the use of other biomarkers as their measurement is directly associated with endothelial function, and available evidence suggests that they are consistently and significantly associated with a spectrum of cardiovascular complications, such as acute coronary syndromes and coronary artery disease. However, many issues in the field of EPC isolation and identification, particularly in regards to the effective and unequivocal molecular characterization of these cells still remain unresolved. In addition, simple EPC counts do not adequately describe cardiovascular disease risk. This limitation is attributable to variation in the definition of EPCs, the number of existing cardiovascular risk factors in different patients as well as a difference in the interaction between EPCs and other hematopoietic progenitor, inflammatory cells or platelets.
实验研究表明，骨髓来源的内皮祖细胞（EPCs）在维持内皮完整性和止血方面发挥着重要作用。循环中 EPC 的数量与心血管危险因素和血管功能呈负相关，并可独立于传统和非传统危险因素预测心血管事件。因此，EPC 比使用其他生物标志物具有临床优势，因为它们的测量与内皮功能直接相关，并且现有证据表明，它们与一系列心血管并发症（如急性冠状动脉综合征和冠心病）始终且显著相关。然而，EPC 分离和鉴定领域仍存在许多问题，特别是在这些细胞的有效和明确的分子特征方面。此外，简单的 EPC 计数并不能充分描述心血管疾病的风险。这种局限性归因于 EPC 定义的变化、不同患者中现有的心血管危险因素的数量以及 EPC 与其他造血祖细胞、炎症细胞或血小板之间相互作用的差异。
