It appears that there are two classes of human circulating endothelial cell (EC) progenitors, CD34+ and CD34-CD14+ cells. Attention has focused on CD34+ cells, yet CD34-CD14+ monocytic cells are far more abundant and may represent the most common class of circulating EC progenitor. Little is known about molecular or physiological factors that regulate putative CD34-CD14+ EC progenitor function,...

Background: Tissue fibrosis is a major healthcare burden that affects various organs in the body for which no effective treatments exist. An underlying, emerging theme across and tissue types at early stages of activation pericytes and/or fibroblasts perivascular space. In hepatic tissue, it well known liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (EC) help maintain quiescence stellate cells, but whether ...

Reciprocal growth factor exchanges between endothelial and malignant cells within the hypoxic microenvironment determine tumor progression. However, the nature of these exchanges has not yet been fully explored. We studied the mutual regulation between endothelial cells (EC), melanoma cells and hypoxia that dictate tumor aggressiveness and angiogenic activity. Here, we investigated the presence...

OBJECTIVE Superficial erosion of coronary plaques due to endothelial loss causes acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Macrophages at erosive sites of human coronary atheroma present myeloperoxidase (MPO), an enzyme that produces hypochlorous acid (HOCl). METHODS AND RESULTS Activated MPO-positive macrophages or exogenous HOCl promoted detachment of endothelial cells (EC) from "Matrigel" substrata ...

Previous results have indicated that mac25/angiomodulin (AGM) is expressed in lymph node (LN) high endothelial venules (HEV), the specialized venules that support efficient lymphocyte transendothelial migration. How mac25/AGM's endothelial expression pattern is regulated in situ remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that in mouse LN blood vessels, including HEV, mac25/AGM is localized, unlike p...

BACKGROUND Recent studies identified mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) as major players in vascular remodelling and the sub-endothelial compartment as the stem cell niche. The uraemic microenvironment predisposes to increased levels of reactive oxygen species, accelerated ageing of endothelial cells (EC) and vascular sclerosis. METHODS We generated an in vitro model of a vascular niche consisting ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs, which post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression. miRNAs are transcribed as precursors and matured to active forms by a series of enzymes, including Dicer. miRNAs are important in governing cell differentiation, development, and disease. We have recently developed a feeder- and serum-free protocol for direct derivation of endothelial cells (ECs)...

The transcriptional regulation of genes is a complex process, particularly for genes exhibiting a tissue-specific pattern of expression. We studied 28 genes that are expressed primarily in endothelial cells, another 28 genes that are expressed highly, but not exclusively, in cultured endothelial cells, and three control sets, consisting of genes not expressed in endothelium, genes expressed in ...

Glioblastoma are among the most angiogenic tumors. The molecular mechanisms that control blood vessel formation by endothelial cells (EC) in glioblastoma remain incompletely understood. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is a key regulatory cytokine that has proinvasive and stemness-maintaining autocrine properties in glioblastoma and confers immunosuppression to the tumor microenvironment. H...

Introduction Endothelial cell (EC) sodding of the luminal surface of small diameter synthetic vascular grafts is acknowledged to improve graft patency. However, ECs are known to down regulate their expression of key anti-thrombotic and antiinflammatory molecules immediately after implantation [1]. This study investigated the potential of augmenting EC expression of thrombomodulin (TM), a glycop...