title: Endothelial cell precursors are normal components of human umbilical cord blood.
abstract: Endothelial cells are part of the normal bone marrow stroma. We have previously shown human umbilical cord blood (UCB) does not produce stroma in standard long-term cultures. Highly enriched (93-98%) UCB CD34+ cells were cultured for 6 weeks with interleukin-2 and conditioned medium from the 5637 carcinoma cell line (n = 4). The resulting 'fibroblast like' cells were shown to be endothelial by expression of von Willebrand factor (VWF), ICAM-1 (CD54), E-selectin (CD62E) and PECAM (CD31). Endothelial monolayers seeded with CD34+ UCB cells supported expansion of colony forming cells and CD34+ cells. We conclude that endothelial cell precursors circulate in UCB, and may be derived from the CD34+ cell fraction.
authors.affiliation: Stem Cell Research Laboratory, University of Bristol Division of Transplantation Sciences.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nieda
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nicol
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Denning-Kendall
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sweetenham
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hows
mesh_terms: D018952:Antigens, CD34; D004727:Endothelium; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D008264:Macrophages / Q000166:cytology*
chemical_list: D018952:Antigens, CD34