Group of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Care, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Pólo das Ciências da Saúde, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000-548, Coimbra, Portugal.
Institute of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Coimbra Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research (iCBR), Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
Stem Cell Rev Rep. 2019 Feb;15(1):35-47. doi: 10.1007/s12015-018-9857-2.
Bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a key role in the maintenance of endothelial homeostasis and endothelial repair at areas of vascular damage. The quantification of EPCs in peripheral blood by flow cytometry is a strategy to assess this reparative capacity. The number of circulating EPCs is inversely correlated with the number of cardiovascular risk factors and to the occurrence of cardiovascular events. Therefore, monitoring EPCs levels may provide an accurate assessment of susceptibility to cardiovascular injury, greatly improving risk stratification of patients with high cardiovascular risk, such as those with an acute myocardial infarction. However, there are many issues in the field of EPC identification and quantification that remain unsolved. In fact, there have been conflicting protocols used to the phenotypic identification of EPCs and there is still no consensual immunophenotypical profile that corresponds exactly to EPCs. In this paper we aim to give an overview on EPCs-mediated vascular repair with special focus on acute coronary syndromes and to discuss the different phenotypic profiles that have been used to identify and quantify circulating EPCs in several clinical studies. Finally, we will synthesize evidence on the prognostic role of EPCs in patients with high cardiovascular risk.
骨髓来源的内皮祖细胞（EPCs）在维持血管损伤部位的内皮稳态和内皮修复中发挥着关键作用。通过流式细胞术在外周血中定量 EPCs 是评估这种修复能力的一种策略。循环 EPCs 的数量与心血管危险因素的数量呈负相关，也与心血管事件的发生呈负相关。因此，监测 EPCs 水平可能提供对心血管损伤易感性的准确评估，极大地改善了高心血管风险患者的风险分层，例如急性心肌梗死患者。然而，在 EPC 鉴定和定量领域仍存在许多悬而未决的问题。事实上，用于 EPC 表型鉴定的方案存在冲突，并且仍然没有一致的免疫表型特征完全对应于 EPCs。本文旨在概述 EPC 介导的血管修复，特别关注急性冠状动脉综合征，并讨论在几项临床研究中用于鉴定和定量循环 EPCs 的不同表型特征。最后，我们将综合高心血管风险患者中 EPCs 的预后作用的证据。
