Recent Advances in Endothelial Colony-forming Cells: from the Transcriptomic Perspective

Overview

Journal J Transl Med

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Biomedical Engineering
General Medicine

Date 2024 Mar 27

PMID 38532420

Authors

Yaqiong Liu

Caomhan J Lyons

Christine Ayu

Timothy OBrien

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) are progenitors of endothelial cells with significant proliferative and angiogenic ability. ECFCs are a promising treatment option for various diseases, such as ischemic heart disease and peripheral artery disease. However, some barriers hinder the clinical application of ECFC therapeutics. One of the current obstacles is that ECFCs are dysfunctional due to the underlying disease states. ECFCs exhibit dysfunctional phenotypes in pathologic states, which include but are not limited to the following: premature neonates and pregnancy-related diseases, diabetes mellitus, cancers, haematological system diseases, hypoxia, pulmonary arterial hypertension, coronary artery diseases, and other vascular diseases. Besides, ECFCs are heterogeneous among donors, tissue sources, and within cell subpopulations. Therefore, it is important to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of ECFC dysfunction and characterize their heterogeneity to enable clinical application. In this review, we summarize the current and potential application of transcriptomic analysis in the field of ECFC biology. Transcriptomic analysis is a powerful tool for exploring the key molecules and pathways involved in health and disease and can be used to characterize ECFC heterogeneity.

Citing Articles

Isolation and Characterization of Endothelial-Colony Forming Cells (ECFC): Studying Endothelial Senescence for Translational Studies and for Personalized Medicine.

Paschalaki K, Pericleous C Methods Mol Biol. 2025; 2906:255-270.

PMID: 40082361 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4426-3_15.

A Personalized Approach to Vitamin D Supplementation in Cardiovascular Health Beyond the Bone: An Expert Consensus by the Italian National Institute for Cardiovascular Research.

Mattioli A, Coppi F, Severino P, Penna C, Pagliaro P, Dei Cas A Nutrients. 2025; 17(1.

PMID: 39796548 PMC: 11722835. DOI: 10.3390/nu17010115.

Bridging the Gap: Endothelial Dysfunction and the Role of iPSC-Derived Endothelial Cells in Disease Modeling.

Sgromo C, Cucci A, Venturin G, Follenzi A, Olgasi C Int J Mol Sci. 2025; 25(24.

PMID: 39769040 PMC: 11678083. DOI: 10.3390/ijms252413275.

References

Kloosterman R, Zago-Schmitt M, Grabell J, Thibeault L, De Lima P, Bowman M . A transcriptome analysis of basal and stimulated VWF release from endothelial cells derived from patients with type 1 VWD. Blood Adv. 2022; 7(8):1477-1487. PMC: 10125911. DOI: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2022007884. View

Chen C, Liao Y, Peng G . Connecting past and present: single-cell lineage tracing. Protein Cell. 2022; 13(11):790-807. PMC: 9237189. DOI: 10.1007/s13238-022-00913-7. View

Schroder-Heurich B, Buder T, Meyer N, Vu T, Richter K, Ramachandran D . Downregulation of miR-1270 mediates endothelial progenitor cell function in preeclampsia: Role for ATM in the Src/VE-cadherin axis. FASEB J. 2022; 36(7):e22379. DOI: 10.1096/fj.202200040RR. View

Haghverdi L, Lun A, Morgan M, Marioni J . Batch effects in single-cell RNA-sequencing data are corrected by matching mutual nearest neighbors. Nat Biotechnol. 2018; 36(5):421-427. PMC: 6152897. DOI: 10.1038/nbt.4091. View

Chen K, Li Y, Xu L, Qian Y, Liu N, Zhou C . Comprehensive insight into endothelial progenitor cell-derived extracellular vesicles as a promising candidate for disease treatment. Stem Cell Res Ther. 2022; 13(1):238. PMC: 9172199. DOI: 10.1186/s13287-022-02921-0. View

Detriche G, Guerin C, Gendron N, Mirault T, Smadja D . Do Endothelial Colony-forming Cells Come From Bone Marrow or Vessels/VSELs?. Stem Cell Rev Rep. 2021; 17(4):1500-1502. DOI: 10.1007/s12015-021-10140-y. View

Alphonse R, Vadivel A, Zhong S, Zong S, McConaghy S, Ohls R . The isolation and culture of endothelial colony-forming cells from human and rat lungs. Nat Protoc. 2015; 10(11):1697-708. DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2015.107. View

Hu H, Wang B, Jiang C, Li R, Zhao J . Endothelial progenitor cell-derived exosomes facilitate vascular endothelial cell repair through shuttling miR-21-5p to modulate Thrombospondin-1 expression. Clin Sci (Lond). 2019; 133(14):1629-1644. DOI: 10.1042/CS20190188. View

Chang T, Tsai W, Huang T, Su S, Chang C, Ma H . Dysregulation of endothelial colony-forming cell function by a negative feedback loop of circulating miR-146a and -146b in cardiovascular disease patients. PLoS One. 2017; 12(7):e0181562. PMC: 5519171. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181562. View

10.

Shen Z, Chen Q, Ying H, Ma Z, Bi X, Li X . Identification of differentially expressed genes in the endothelial precursor cells of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus by bioinformatics analysis. Exp Ther Med. 2020; 19(1):499-510. PMC: 6923743. DOI: 10.3892/etm.2019.8239. View

11.

Kutikhin A, Tupikin A, Matveeva V, Shishkova D, Antonova L, Kabilov M . Human Peripheral Blood-Derived Endothelial Colony-Forming Cells Are Highly Similar to Mature Vascular Endothelial Cells yet Demonstrate a Transitional Transcriptomic Signature. Cells. 2020; 9(4). PMC: 7226818. DOI: 10.3390/cells9040876. View

12.

Griffiths J, Scialdone A, Marioni J . Using single-cell genomics to understand developmental processes and cell fate decisions. Mol Syst Biol. 2018; 14(4):e8046. PMC: 5900446. DOI: 10.15252/msb.20178046. View

13.

Pun S, ONeill K, Edgar K, Gill E, Moez A, Naderi-Meshkin H . PLAC8-Mediated Activation of NOX4 Signalling Restores Angiogenic Function of Endothelial Colony-Forming Cells in Experimental Hypoxia. Cells. 2023; 12(18). PMC: 10526321. DOI: 10.3390/cells12182220. View

14.

Della Bella S, Calcaterra F, Bacci M, Carenza C, Pandolfo C, Ferrazzi P . Pathologic up-regulation of TNFSF15-TNFRSF25 axis sustains endothelial dysfunction in unprovoked venous thromboembolism. Cardiovasc Res. 2019; 116(3):698-707. DOI: 10.1093/cvr/cvz131. View

15.

Banno K, Yoder M . Tissue regeneration using endothelial colony-forming cells: promising cells for vascular repair. Pediatr Res. 2017; 83(1-2):283-290. DOI: 10.1038/pr.2017.231. View

16.

Tan K, Lessieur E, Cutler A, Nerone P, Vasanji A, Asosingh K . Impaired function of circulating CD34(+) CD45(-) cells in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Exp Eye Res. 2010; 91(2):229-37. PMC: 3895932. DOI: 10.1016/j.exer.2010.05.012. View

17.

Xing Z, Zhao C, Liu H, Fan Y . Endothelial Progenitor Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles: A Novel Candidate for Regenerative Medicine and Disease Treatment. Adv Healthc Mater. 2020; 9(12):e2000255. DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202000255. View

18.

Nicholson M, Chan N, Bhagirath V, Ginsberg J . Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism in 2020 and Beyond. J Clin Med. 2020; 9(8). PMC: 7465935. DOI: 10.3390/jcm9082467. View

19.

Asahara T, Murohara T, Sullivan A, Silver M, van der Zee R, Li T . Isolation of putative progenitor endothelial cells for angiogenesis. Science. 1997; 275(5302):964-7. DOI: 10.1126/science.275.5302.964. View

20.

Cras A, Larghero J, Rossi E, Blandinieres A, Gaussem P, Smadja D . Nestin is a New Partner in Endothelial Colony Forming Cell Angiogenic Potential. Stem Cell Rev Rep. 2023; 19(7):2541-2550. DOI: 10.1007/s12015-023-10587-1. View