Publication Date:
2015-03-21
Description:
Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a significant role in physiological and pathological hypoxia resistance and neovascularization processes. The ability to mobilize EPCs from bone marrow usually indicates a prognostic endpoint of several vascular diseases. Thus, it is of great value to study possible approaches for activating functional EPCs. The mobilization/homing of EPCs from bone marrow is signalled by stromal-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), which is regulated by the hypoxia-inducible factor-1 α (HIF-1 α ). This study investigated the effects of directly manipulating HIF-1 α on human EPCs in vitro . EPCs were isolated from human umbilical cord blood. Lentiviral vectors carrying HIF-1 α and shRNA targeting HIF-1 α were constructed for gene modification of the EPCs. Results demonstrated that after overexpression of HIF-1 α by lentiviral transfection, the proliferative capacity of EPCs was elevated while the apoptosis was inhibited and vice versa. On the other hand, the expression of angiogenic-related cytokines including SDF-1 was upregulated on both gene and protein levels when EPCs were transfected with HIF-1 α . These results indicate that direct HIF-1 α manipulation over human EPCs is an effective method to promote EPC function and mobilization, thus suggest that drugs or reagents that elevate HIF-1 α expression are capable of treating ischemic diseases. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Print ISSN:
0263-6484
Electronic ISSN:
1099-0844
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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