Curr Stem Cell Res Ther. 2019 Feb 14. doi: 10.2174/1574888X14666190214162453. [Epub ahead of print]

Therapeutic Potential of Endothelial Colony Forming Cells Derived from Human Umbilical Cord Blood.

Jia J¹, Ma B², Wang S¹, Feng L¹.

Abstract

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are implicated in mutiple biologic processes such as vascular homeostasis, neovascularization and tissue regeneration, and tumor angiogenesis. A subtype of EPCs is referred to as endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs), which display robust clonal proliferative potential and can form durable and functional blood vessels in animal models. In this review, we provide a brief overview of EPCs' characteristics, classification and origins, a summary of the progress in preclinical studies as regard to the therapeutic potential of human umbilical cord blood derived ECFCs (CB-ECFCs) for ischemia repair, tissue engineering and tumor, and highlight the necessity to select high proliferative CB-ECFCs and to optimize their recovery and expansion conditions.