Department of Pediatrics, Herman B Wells Center for Pediatrics Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2012 Jul;2(7):a006692. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a006692.
Human endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have been generally defined as circulating cells that express a variety of cell surface markers similar to those expressed by vascular endothelial cells, adhere to endothelium at sites of hypoxia/ischemia, and participate in new vessel formation. Although no specific marker for an EPC has been identified, a panel of markers has been consistently used as a surrogate marker for cells displaying the vascular regenerative properties of the putative EPC. However, it is now clear that a host of hematopoietic and vascular endothelial subsets display the same panel of antigens and can only be discriminated by an extensive gene expression analysis or use of a variety of functional assays that are not often applied. This article reviews our current understanding of the many cell subsets that constitute the term EPC and provides a concluding perspective as to the various roles played by these circulating or resident cells in vessel repair and regeneration in human subjects.
人类内皮祖细胞（EPCs）通常被定义为表达类似于血管内皮细胞表达的多种细胞表面标志物的循环细胞，在缺氧/缺血部位黏附在内皮上，并参与新血管的形成。尽管尚未确定 EPC 的特定标志物，但一组标志物一直被用作显示假定 EPC 的血管再生特性的细胞的替代标志物。然而，现在很清楚，许多造血和血管内皮亚群显示出相同的抗原谱，只能通过广泛的基因表达分析或使用多种功能测定法进行区分，而这些测定法并不经常应用。本文综述了我们目前对构成 EPC 这一术语的许多细胞亚群的认识，并就这些循环或驻留细胞在人类血管修复和再生中所起的各种作用提供了一个结论性的观点。
