title: Circulating endothelial cells in patients with venous thromboembolism and myeloproliferative neoplasms.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) may be a biomarker of vascular injury and pro-thrombotic tendency, while circulating endothelial progenitor cells (CEP) may be an indicator for angiogenesis and vascular remodelling. However, there is not a universally accepted standardized protocol to identify and quantify these cells and its clinical relevancy remains to be established.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To quantify CEC and CEP in patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) and with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), to characterize the CEC for the expression of activation (CD54, CD62E) and procoagulant (CD142) markers and to investigate whether they correlate with other clinical and laboratory data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen patients with VTE, 17 patients with MPN and 20 healthy individuals were studied. The CEC and CEP were quantified and characterized in the blood using flow cytometry, and the demographic, clinical and laboratory data were obtained from hospital records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found the CEC counts were higher in both patient groups as compared to controls, whereas increased numbers of CEP were found only in patients with MPN. In addition, all disease groups had higher numbers of CD62E+ CEC as compared to controls, whereas only patients with VTE had increased numbers of CD142+ and CD54+ CEC. Moreover, the numbers of total and CD62+ CEC correlated positively with the white blood cells (WBC) counts in both groups of patients, while the numbers of CEP correlated positively with the WBC counts only in patients with MPN. In addition, in patients with VTE a positive correlation was found between the numbers of CD54+ CEC and the antithrombin levels, as well as between the CD142+ CEC counts and the number of thrombotic events.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study suggests that CEC counts may reveal endothelial injury in patients with VTE and MPN and that CEC may express different activation-related phenotypes depending on the disease status.
authors: Laboratório de Citometria, Serviço de Hematologia Clínica, Hospital de Santo António (HSA), Centro Hospitalar do Porto (CHP), Porto, Portugal ; Unidade Multidisciplinar de Investigação Biomédica (UMIB), Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar da Universidade do Porto (ICBAS/UP), Porto, Portugal.
authors: Cláudia
authors: C
authors: Torres
authors: Ana Mafalda
authors: AM
authors: Fonseca
authors: Magdalena
authors: M
authors: Leander
authors: Rui
authors: R
authors: Matos
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Morais
authors: Manuel
authors: M
authors: Campos
authors: Margarida
authors: M
authors: Lima
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002452:Cell Count; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011087:Polycythemia Vera / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology; D013920:Thrombocythemia, Essential / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology*; D054556:Venous Thromboembolism / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers