title: Circulating endothelial progenitor cells in HIV infection: a systematic review.
abstract: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals have a cardiovascular disease risk that is almost thrice than that of their HIV-uninfected counterparts. Given the critical role of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in vascular homeostasis and arterial repair postinjury, coupled with their strength as biomarkers predictive of cardiovascular events, interest has arisen in characterizing EPCs in the context of HIV infection. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to determine the current state of knowledge on EPCs in the context of HIV infection. Herein, we summarize the pertinent findings of these studies and discuss important differences in the subpopulations of EPCs examined and the methodologies used for their enumeration which likely contributed to the heterogeneity observed across studies.
authors: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
authors: Cecilia T
authors: CT
authors: Costiniuk
authors: Benjamin M
authors: BM
authors: Hibbert
authors: Trevor
authors: T
authors: Simard
authors: Feras M
authors: FM
authors: Ghazawi
authors: Jonathan B
authors: JB
authors: Angel
authors: Edward R
authors: ER
authors: O'Brien
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology