Abstract
It is believed that this new century will be the century of regenerative medicine in which chronic diseases will be reversed by therapeutics which can repair and restore function in situ.1 One prerequisite for tissue regeneration is a readily available population of cells that are both highly renewable and highly differentiable. Commonly known as stem or precursor cells, the theoretical appeal of these cells dates back more than 100 years2 but gained traction in the latter half of the 20th century with the isolation and identification of hematopoietic stem cells,3 mesenchymal stem cells,4 and human embryonic stem cells.5,6 In vascular biology progenitor cells able to initiate neovascularization, known as endothelial precursor cells (EPCs), were first identified by Isner and Asahara7 in 1997. See ATVB 2008;28:644–650 Since then, a number of studies have indicated a strong correlation between cardiovascular risk factors and EPC numbers and function.8 Diabetes mellitus,9,10 hypercholesterolemia,11 coronary artery disease,12 and cigarette smoking13,14 have all been shown to adversely affect EPC number …
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