VEGF165 induces differentiation of hair follicle stem cells into endothelial cells and plays a role in in vivo angiogenesis.

Renfu Quan,Xuan Zheng,Shichao Xu,Weibin Du,Qiang Li,Disheng Yang,Xing Ji,Ximei Wu,Rongxue Shao

doi:10.1111/jcmm.13089

Abstract

Within the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family of five subtypes, VEGF165 secreted by endothelial cells has been identified to be the most active and widely distributed factor that plays a vital role in courses of angiogenesis, vascularization and mesenchymal cell differentiation. Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) can be harvested from the bulge region of the outer root sheath of the hair follicle and are adult stem cells that have multi‐directional differentiation potential. Although the research on differentiation of stem cells (such as fat stem cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells) to the endothelial cells has been extensive, but the various mechanisms and functional forms are unclear. In particular, study on HFSCs’ directional differentiation into vascular endothelial cells using VEGF165 has not been reported. In this study, VEGF165 was used as induction factor to induce the differentiation from HFSCs into vascular endothelial cells, and the results showed that Notch signalling pathway might affect the differentiation efficiency of vascular endothelial cells. In addition, the in vivo transplantation experiment provided that HFSCs could promote angiogenesis, and the main function is to accelerate host‐derived neovascularization. Therefore, HFSCs could be considered as an ideal cell source for vascular tissue engineering and cell transplantation in the treatment of ischaemic diseases.

Highlights

Tissue renewal, regeneration and repair, as well as tumorigenesis and other physiopathological processes are dominated by the occurrence of angiogenesis and vascular formation
Culture and purification of rat HFSCs (rHFSCs) Under inverted phase contrast microscopy, cells began to disperse from the hair follicle bulge at approximately 2–3 days, with an increased cell numbers observed after 6–7 days when tightly packed cells showing a cobblestone-like appearance and distribution
After 48 hrs, the infection rate of rHFSCs was found to be more than 90%

Summary

Introduction

Regeneration and repair, as well as tumorigenesis and other physiopathological processes are dominated by the occurrence of angiogenesis and vascular formation. As a key component of the vascular tissue barrier, vascular endothelial cells (VECs) are involved in these two processes, so have become a favoured cell source for the construction of tissue-engineering vascular autografts [1, 2]. Owing to limited sources of autologous endothelial cells, patients undergoing this procedure are susceptible to graft stenosis and occlusion, resulting in exacerbation on injury. Primary VECs that have been isolated and cultured have many disadvantages including a short cell-cycle length, limited proliferative capacity and susceptibility to ageing [3,4,5,6].

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Conclusion