Circulating endothelial cells as a marker of ongoing vascular disease in systemic sclerosis

Abstract

Results. Total and activated CEC counts were significantly higher in SSc patients compared with healthy controls and were positively correlated with the disease activity score. With respect to visceral involvement, significant correlation was observed between the CEC number and the severity of pulmonary hypertension. High levels of endothelial progenitors were observed in patients with SSc, and the counts were higher in the early stages of disease.

Scleroderma: from cell and molecular mechanisms to disease models

“…Antibody-mediated endothelial apoptosis and induction of the Fas (CD95) pathway, activation of microvascular pericytes and intimal proliferation, resulting in blood vessel occlusion, characterize capillary 'dropout', and reduced capillary density [1,28]. Despite such ischemic conditions, the process of re-vascularisation that normally re-establishes blood flow to ischemic tissue appears to fail, possibly as a result of abnormal endothelial progenitor function [29,30]. Studies in two spontaneous animal models of SSc, the UCD-200 chickens and Tsk1/C mouse, have also highlighted the role of endothelial dysfunction as an early acute disease feature [24,26].…”

Decreased numbers of endothelial progenitor cells in patients in the early stages of systemic sclerosis

“…Nonetheless, the numbers and functions of these cells in SSc remain to be matters of debate. Following the first report of Kuwana et al (2004) that showed decreased levels of circulating EPCs in SSc patients, conflicting reports have been released in terms of the numbers and functions of EPCs in SSc (Allanore et al, 2007;Avouac et al, 2008b;Del Papa et al, 2004, 2006Mok et al, 2010;Nevskaya et al, 2008;Zhu et al, 2008). EPCs are defined primarily by colony-forming assays that use culture-based methods or expression of cell-surface antigens including CD34, CD133 and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor type 2 (VEGFR2) as assayed by flow cytometry.…”

Endothelial progenitor cells: Are they displaying a function in autoimmune disorders?

“…However, to date there are no standardized methods to quantify and identify EPCs and the protocols used vary between studies (Kuwana and Okazaki, 2012). In particular, studies on quantification of circulating EPCs number in various autoimmune diseases are controversial probably because of different microeviroment, drugs, cytokine and other factors modifying their survival (Cipriani et al, 2011;Kuwana et al, 2004;Del Papa et al, 2004;Paleolog et al, 2005;Moonen et al, 2007).…”