title: Endothelial progenitor cells as a possible component of stem cell niche to promote self-renewal of mesenchymal stem cells.
abstract: Stem cells dwell at the "stem cell niche" to accomplish a series of biological processes. The composition of the niche should be determined because the insufficient understanding of this feature limits the development in the study of stem cells. We showed in our study on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that the MSCs first neighbored to CD31(+) cells, which proved to be endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), and formed a group of cell colony before they exerted their biological functions. It was further proved that EPCs have close interactions with MSCs and promoted the self-renewal of the MSCs in vitro and in vivo. Together with these achievements, we hypothesized that EPCs may be a possible biological component of the MSC stem cell niche and affect the biological processes of MSCs.
authors.affiliation: Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical School, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xian
authors.forename: Zhiyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chaozhe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wenlei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Xueling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiangwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D055153:Stem Cell Niche / Q000502:physiology*