Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), also known as neonatal chronic lung disease, is a multifactorial disease and its pathogenesis starts even before birth. Animal models of BPD and the study of infants with BPD suggest that impaired lung vascular development leads to the failure of alveolar development and strategies that promote vascular development result in improved alveolarization of the lung. Since 1997 when Asahara identified endothelial cell progenitors (EPCs) as blood cells having the ability to contribute to postnatal vasculogenesis, several studies have attempted to elucidate the role of EPCs in neonatal lung development and lung injury and repair. This review outlines the progress in defining early EPCs (believed to be of hematopoietic origin) and late EPCs or true EPCs (believed to be of endothelial origin) through the use of cell culture assays and flow cytometric characterization. Both animal and human studies have attempted to correlate the frequency of these specific populations with susceptibility to BPD. Animal studies use hyperoxia or endotoxininduced lung injury as a model of BPD. Human studies use frequencies of specific cell populations as a prognostic index of BPD. Conflicting outcomes are likely the result of a lack of consistent definitions. Recently, there is increasing evidence that blood and bone marrow-derived stem cells exert a beneficial effect in models of chronic lung injury, not so much by engraftment and differentiation, but by a paracrine effect on the existing lung progenitor cells.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.