摘要
Adult stem/progenitor cells play important roles in tissue homeostasis and have important implications for regenerativemedicine.It was once thought that formation of new blood vessels in adult only occurs through angiogenesis,a processwhereby new vessels are formed from existing mature endothelial cells;while vasculogenesis,where new vessels arederived from differentiation of endothelial progenitor cells(EPCs),was thought to occur exclusively in embryos.Thediscovery of adult EPCs a few years ago has changed this old paradigm;and subsequent studies showed that EPCs maybe a promising tool for the treatment of vascular disorders.However,there have been conflicting reports on subtypes,surface markers,and functions of EPCs;and thus the exact origin and identity of EPCs remain to be defined.A commonapproach to obtain EPCs is to isolate and culture mononuclear cells from peripheral blood and to select adherent cells
Adult stem/progenitor cells play important roles in tissue homeostasis and have important implications for regenerative medicine. It was once thought that formation of new blood vessels in adult only occurs through angiogenesis, a process whereby new vessels are formed from existing mature endothelial cells; while vasculogenesis, where new vessels are derived from differentiation of endothelial progenitor cells （EPCs）, was thought to occur exclusively in embryos. The discovery of adult EPCs a few years ago has changed this old paradigm; and subsequent studies showed that EPCs may be a promising tool for the treatment of vascular disorders. However, there have been conflicting reports on subtypes, surface markers, and functions of EPCs; and thus the exact origin and identity of EPCs remain to be defined. A common approach to obtain EPCs is to isolate and culture mononuclear cells from peripheral blood and to select adherent cells for further analyses. In the June issue of Cell Research, Zhang et al. attempted to isolate putative ＂EPCs＂ using this approach,
