From the Department of Medicine, University of Adelaide and Heart Health Theme, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia (P.J.P.); Monash Cardiovascular Research Centre, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia (P.J.P.); and Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine (R.D.S.).
Circ Res. 2015 Apr 10;116(8):1392-412. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.116.305368.
The vasculature plays an indispensible role in organ development and maintenance of tissue homeostasis, such that disturbances to it impact greatly on developmental and postnatal health. Although cell turnover in healthy blood vessels is low, it increases considerably under pathological conditions. The principle sources for this phenomenon have long been considered to be the recruitment of cells from the peripheral circulation and the re-entry of mature cells in the vessel wall back into cell cycle. However, recent discoveries have also uncovered the presence of a range of multipotent and lineage-restricted progenitor cells in the mural layers of postnatal blood vessels, possessing high proliferative capacity and potential to generate endothelial, smooth muscle, hematopoietic or mesenchymal cell progeny. In particular, the tunica adventitia has emerged as a progenitor-rich compartment with niche-like characteristics that support and regulate vascular wall progenitor cells. Preliminary data indicate the involvement of some of these vascular wall progenitor cells in vascular disease states, adding weight to the notion that the adventitia is integral to vascular wall pathogenesis, and raising potential implications for clinical therapies. This review discusses the current body of evidence for the existence of vascular wall progenitor cell subpopulations from development to adulthood and addresses the gains made and significant challenges that lie ahead in trying to accurately delineate their identities, origins, regulatory pathways, and relevance to normal vascular structure and function, as well as disease.
脉管系统在器官发育和组织稳态维持中起着不可或缺的作用，因此其功能障碍会对发育和出生后健康产生重大影响。尽管健康血管中的细胞更新率较低，但在病理条件下会显著增加。长期以来，这种现象的主要来源被认为是从外周循环中招募细胞，以及血管壁中成熟细胞重新进入细胞周期。然而，最近的发现也揭示了在出生后血管的壁层中存在一系列多能性和谱系限制性祖细胞，具有高增殖能力和生成内皮细胞、平滑肌细胞、造血细胞或间充质细胞后代的潜能。特别是，血管外膜已经成为富含祖细胞的区域，具有支持和调节血管壁祖细胞的小生境样特征。初步数据表明，其中一些血管壁祖细胞参与了血管疾病状态，这进一步证明了外膜对于血管壁发病机制的重要性，并为临床治疗带来了潜在的影响。本综述讨论了从发育到成年期存在血管壁祖细胞亚群的现有证据，并讨论了在试图准确描绘其身份、起源、调控途径以及与正常血管结构和功能以及疾病的相关性方面所取得的进展和面临的重大挑战。
