title: Functional late outgrowth endothelial progenitors isolated from peripheral blood of burned patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bioengineered skin substitutes are increasingly considered as a useful option for the treatment of full thickness burn injury. Their viability following grafting can be enhanced by seeding the skin substitute with late outgrowth endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). However, it is not known whether autologous EPCs can be obtained from burned patients shortly after injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  Late outgrowth EPCs were isolated from peripheral blood sampled obtained from 10 burned patients (extent 19.6±10.3% TBSA) within the first 24h of hospital admission, and from 7 healthy subjects. Late outgrowth EPCs were phenotyped in vitro.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In comparison with similar cells obtained from healthy subjects, growing colonies from burned patients yielded a higher percentage of EPC clones (46 versus 17%, p=0.013). Furthermore, EPCs from burned patients secreted more vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) into the culture medium than did their counterparts from healthy subjects (85.8±56.2 versus 17.6±14pg/mg protein, p=0.018). When injected to athymic nude mice 6h after unilateral ligation of the femoral artery, EPCs from both groups of subjects greatly accelerated the reperfusion of the ischaemic hindlimb and increased the number of vascular smooth muscle cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study supports that, in patients with burns of moderate extension, it is feasible to obtain functional autologous late outgrowth EPCs from peripheral blood. These results constitute a strong incentive to pursue approaches based on using autotransplantation of these cells to improve the therapy of full thickness burns.
authors.affiliation: Division de Physiopathologie Clinique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rignault-Clerc
authors.forename: Christelle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bielmann
authors.forename: Frederik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Delodder
authors.forename: Wassim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Raffoul
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Waeber
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liaudet
authors.forename: Mette M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Feihl
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rosenblatt-Velin
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002056:Burns / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007511:Ischemia / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D008875:Middle Aged; D009130:Muscle, Smooth / Q000378:metabolism; D036102:Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000378:metabolism; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A