| Theme |
Arteriosclerosis in Hemodialysis Patient |
| Title |
Therapeutic angiogenesis in patients with peripheral artery occlusive disease |
| Author |
Toyoaki Murohara |
Department of Internal Medicine III, and The Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kurume University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Satoshi Shintani |
Department of Internal Medicine III, and The Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kurume University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Hidetoshi Akashi |
Department of Surgery, and The Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kurume University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Kohji Yoshimoto |
Department of Internal Medicine II, Kurume University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Teiji Okazaki |
Department of Surgery, and The Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kurume University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Ken-ichiro Sasaki |
Department of Internal Medicine III, and The Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kurume University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Toshifumi Shimada |
Department of Internal Medicine III, and The Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kurume University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Tsutomu Imaizumi |
Department of Internal Medicine III, and The Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kurume University School of Medicine |
| [ Summary ] |
Therapeutic angiogenesis is an effective means for tissue salvage in patients with critical limb ischemia. Angiogenesis is defined as a formation of new blood vessels by sprouting of preexisting mature endothelial cells (ECs). In contrast, vasculogenesis is referred to as the creation of primordial blood vessels from endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) or angioblasts. Neovascular formation in adults has been considered to result exclusively from the former process (i. e., angiogenesis). However, we and other researchers recently identified EPCs in human peripheral blood (PB), and circulating EPCs have been shown to accumulate at active angiogenic sites and to participate in neovascularization, a notion consistent with "postnatal vasculogenesis". EPCs in adults are believed to originate from bone marrow (BM), and we recently demonstrated that in vivo implantation of autologous BM-MNCs effectively augmented the ischemia-induced neovascularization in animal study. Here, we summarize recent advances in cell transplantation-mediated therapeutic angiogenesis. |