Endothelial Progenitor Cells Mend Vessel Damage With A Little Help From EphB4

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Article Date: 21 May 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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Vascular disease is a major heath problem in Western countries and poor oxygen delivery to tissues results can result in ischemia, gangrene, and the need to amputate. The transplantation of endothelial progenitors cells (EPCs) is capable of boosting new blood vessel growth in ischemic tissues, however this approach has been limited by the fact that few of the injected cells accumulate at sites of tissue damage. In a study appearing online in advance of publication in the June print issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gerard Tobelem and colleagues from Institut des Vaisseaux et du Sang, Paris, report a way in which the potential of EPCs to form new blood vessels can be enhanced.

During vessel development, 2 proteins - EphB4 and ephrin-B2 - are expressed in the endothelium that lines blood vessels. Tobelem et al. showed that EphB4 activation with an ephrin-B2-Fc chimeric protein enhanced EPC activation and new vessel growth in the ischemic hind limbs of mice. This was due to enhanced EPC adhesion to the vessel wall. The authors conclude that activation of EphB4 is an innovative and potentially valuable therapeutic strategy for improving the recruitment of EPCs to sites of tissue ischemia and in doing so boosting the efficiency of cell-based therapies for vascular disease.

TITLE: PSGL-1-mediated activation of EphB4 increases the proangiogenic potential of endothelial progenitor cells

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Gérard Tobelem
Institut des Vaisseaux et du Sang, Paris, France.

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JCI table of contents -- May 17, 2007

Contact: Brooke Grindlinger
Journal of Clinical Investigation

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