title: Endothelial progenitor cells and vascular repair.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This review identifies recent advances in the field of vascular repair by regenerative endothelial cells and endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A growing number of studies indicate that bone marrow-derived circulating EPCs do not engraft into blood vessels, but that such circulating cells may regulate vascular repair via paracrine mechanisms. Novel modes of paracrine regulation are being uncovered, such as the release of endothelial cell-derived microparticles or microvesicles that contain microRNAs which can promote vascular repair. Instead of circulating cells, tissue-resident endothelial cells or EPCs may primarily drive the restoration of vascular function after endothelial injury. In addition to the generation of endothelial cells/EPCs from pluripotent stem cells, direct reprogramming of fibroblasts to endothelial cells/EPCs is becoming an important source of regenerative vascular cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ongoing efforts to understand the mechanisms that regulate vascular repair by resident regenerative vascular cells as well as their generation from fibroblasts and pluripotent stem cells will form the basis of future regenerative therapies.
authors.affiliation: aDepartment of Pharmacology bCenter for Lung and Vascular Biology cDepartment of Medicine, Section of Cardiology, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Asrar B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.forename: Jalees
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rehman
mesh_terms: D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000502:physiology*; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D019899:Paracrine Communication / Q000502:physiology; D012038:Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*