title: Applications of nuclear reprogramming and directed differentiation in vascular regenerative medicine.
abstract: As vertebrates proceed through embryonic development the growing organism cannot survive on diffusion of oxygen and nutrients alone and establishment of vascular system is fundamental for embryonic development to proceed. Dysfunction of the vascular system in adults is at the heart of many disease states such as hypertension and atherosclerosis. In this review we will focus on attempts to generate the key cells of the vascular system, the endothelial and smooth muscle cells, using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Regardless of their origin, be it embryonic or via somatic cell reprogramming, pluripotent stem cells provide limitlessly self-renewing populations of material suitable for the generation of multi-lineage isogenic vascular cells-types that can be used as tools to study normal cell and tissue biology, model disease states and also as tools for drug screening and future cell therapies.
authors: Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine, Box 157, 5th Floor, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK. Electronic address: ar332@cam.ac.uk.
authors: Amer A
authors: AA
authors: Rana
authors: Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine, Box 157, 5th Floor, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK.
authors: Elizabeth M
authors: EM
authors: Callery
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000502:physiology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D065150:Cellular Reprogramming; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D032389:Myocytes, Smooth Muscle / Q000166:cytology; D044968:Regenerative Medicine / Q000379:methods*