Peripheral blood derived endothelial colony forming cells as suitable cell source for pre-endothelialization of arterial vascular grafts under dynamic flow conditions

authored by
Xenia Kraus, Edda van de Flierdt, Jannis Renzelmann, Stefanie Thoms, Martin Witt, Thomas Scheper, Cornelia Blume
Abstract

In regenerative medicine, autologous peripheral blood derived endothelial colony forming cells (PB-derived ECFC) represent a promising source of endothelial cells (EC) for pre-endothelialization of arterial tissue engineered vascular grafts (TEVG) since they are readily attainable, can easily be isolated and possess a high proliferation potential. The aim of this study was to compare the phenotype of PB-derived ECFC with arterial and venous model cells such as human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) under dynamic cell culture conditions to find a suitable cell source of EC for pre-endothelialization. In this study PB-derived ECFC were cultivated over 24 h under a high pulsatile shear stress (20 dyn/cm2, 1 Hz) and subsequently analyzed. ECFC oriented and elongated in the direction of flow and expressed similar anti-thrombotic and endothelial differentiation markers compared to HAEC. There were significant differences observable in gene expression levels of CD31, CD34 and NOTCH4 between ECFC and HUVEC. These results therefore suggest an arterial phenotype for PB-derived ECFC both under static and flow conditions, and this was supported by NOTCH4 protein expression profiles. ECFC also significantly up-regulated gene expression levels of anti-thrombotic genes such as krueppel-like factor 2, endothelial nitric oxide synthase 3 and thrombomodulin under shear stress cultivation as compared to static conditions. Dynamically cultured PB-derived ECFC therefore may be a promising cell source for pre-endothelialization of arterial TEVGs.

Organisation(s)
Institute of Technical Chemistry
External Organisation(s)
NIFE - Lower Saxony Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Implant Research and Development
Type
Article
Journal
Microvascular research
Volume
143
ISSN
0026-2862
Publication date
09.2022
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Biochemistry, Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine, Cell Biology
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mvr.2022.104402 (Access: Closed)