title: Determination of Early and Late Endothelial Progenitor Cells in Peripheral Circulation and Their Clinical Association with Coronary Artery Disease.
abstract: The clinical implications of early and late endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in coronary artery disease (CAD) remain unclear. We investigated endothelial dysfunction in CAD by simultaneously examining early and late EPC colony formation and gene expression of specific surface markers in EPCs. EPCs were extracted from a total of 83 subjects with (n = 47) and without (n = 36) CAD. Early and late EPC colonies were formed from mononuclear cells extracted from peripheral blood. We found that fewer early EPC colonies were produced in the CAD group (7.2 ± 3.l/well) than those in the control group (12.4 ± 1.4/well, p < 0.05), and more late EPC colonies were produced in the CAD group (0.8 ± 0.2/well) than those in the control group (0.25 ± 0.02/well, p < 0.05). In the CAD group, the relative expression of CD31 and KDR of early and late EPCs was lower than in the control group. These results demonstrate that CAD patients could have increased late EPC density and that early and late EPCs in CAD patients exhibited immature endothelial characteristics. We suggest that changes in EPC colony count and gene expression of endothelial markers may have relation with development of CAD.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Shotoku
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tagawa
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Chiaki
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshimuta
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Shohei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shimojima
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Junichiro
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yokawa
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Masa-Aki
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kawashiri
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamagishi
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hayashi