Background: Endothelial cell differentiation from peripheral blood or bone marrow cells is of great significance in angiogenesis, vascular healing, and tissue engineering. The purpose of this study was to characterize endothelial cell morphology, gene expression, and growth curve of endothelial progenitor cells (PEC) differentiated from canine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Methods: PBMCs were isolated from fresh dog blood by Hitopaque-1077. Cells were cultured in fibronectin coated plates with endothelial basic medium (EBM-2) for different periods of time. PECs were identified from cell morphology and outgrowth characteristics. Gene expression was studied with flow cytometry analysis. Cell counting technique was used to study cell growth curve of PECs in comparison with primary human coronary artery endothelial cells. Results: At first week of canine PBMC culture, cells were round and many cells died every day. The cell proliferation was very low. At 2 weeks, many cells became spindle shape, showing endothelial morphology. At 3 weeks, many colonies of PECs with cobblestone morphology showed outgrowth. Canine PECs had great growth potential and reached a monolayer in a few days. They formed tight junctions, and showed endothelium like characteristics. Cell markers were studied at 25 days of culture. CD34 was significantly decreased compared to 7 days culture (54% to 6.27%). vWF was significantly increased (from 8.2% to 58.55%). CD31 was not changed. VEGF-R2 was slightly increased. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase was significantly increased (from 0 to 14.97%). Canine PECs showed a significant higher proliferation rate as compared to mature human coronary artery endothelial cells at the same culture condition. Conclusions: These data demonstrate that canine PBMCs are able to differentiate into PECs with characteristics of endothelial morphology and cell specific markers, and canine PECs have a greater growth potential than mature endothelial cells. This study suggests that PBMCs could be a source of PECs, which have potential applications in tissue engineering and vascular therapy.
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