Endothelial progenitor cells from peripheral blood support bone regeneration by provoking an angiogenic response.

Neovascularization is crucial for fracture healing and plays an important role in long-time graft survival in tissue engineering applications. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) can be isolated from peripheral blood avoiding donor site morbidity, which makes them attractive for autologous cell-based engineering of neovessels. However, contradictory results are published concerning the vasculogenic potential of this cell type.

Human endothelial progenitor cells induce extracellular signal-regulated kinase-dependent differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into smooth muscle cells upon cocultivation.

Neovascularization represents an important issue in tissue-engineering applications, since survival of implanted cells strongly relies on sufficient oxygen and nutrient supply. We have recently observed that human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) support neovessel formation originating from coimplanted endothelial cells (ECs) in vivo, suggesting that MSCs may function as perivascular cells by investing and stabilizing nascent EC-derived neovessels. In this study, we investigated EC-induced mural cell differentiation of MSCs in vitro.