Endothelial Progenitor Cells for Tissue Engineering and Tissue Regeneration Endothelial Progenitor Cells

Vascularization of tissues is a major challenge of tissue-engineering and tissue regeneration. We hypothesize that blood-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have the required proliferative and vasculogenic activity to create vascular networks in vivo. To test this, EPCs from human umbilical cord blood or from adult peripheral blood, and human smooth muscle cells as a source of perivascular cells, were combined in Matrigel and implanted subcutaneously into immunodeficient mice. An extensive network of human endothelial cell-lined vessels filled with red blood cells was seen after 1 week, indicating formation of functional anastomoses with the host vasculature. Quantitative analyses showed the microvessel density was significantly superior to that generated by human dermal microvascular endothelial cells but similar to that generated by human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Our findings strongly support the use of human EPCs to form vascular networks in engineered organs and tissues and for regeneration of vascular networks in vivo. In this Chapter, previous studies on strategies for creating microvascular networks, sources of endothelial cells and EPCs for cardiovascular tissue-engineering and studies using bone marrow-derived progenitors for tissue regeneration will be discussed.