Studies on separation and identification of vascular endothelial stem cells in human tissues

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K17003
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 56070:Plastic and reconstructive surgery-related
• Research Institution: Juntendo University
• Principal Investigator: Uchiyama Mizuki 順天堂大学, 医学部, 助手 (60814506)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 血管内皮幹細胞 / 血管再生 / 組織幹細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Recently, our collaborator has found tissue resident vascular endothelial stem cells in mouse muscle, lungs etc. tissue. Previous study demonstrated CD157 marks vessel resident tissue vascular endothelial stem cells. These cells are capable of clonal expansion, angiogenesis initiation and blood vessel maintenance. This study was conducted to demonstrate the that human tissue also have CD157 marker to represent tissue resident vascular endothelial stem cells for the first time. After obtaining approval from the ethical committee, we have collected human skin to evaluate the population of CD157 cells in human tissue. As a result, we have found that CD157 positive cells reside in the human CD31 positive endothelial cells as a side population similarly to murine data. Although we were not able to move forward to identify the efficacy of human tissue resident CD157 cell in vivo due to limited number of cells to be isolated from the tissue, we plan to continue further investigation.

Free Research Field

形成外科

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

マウスでその存在が明らかとなっていた血管内皮幹細胞についてヒト組織を用いて検索を行った結果、ヒト組織中においても血管内皮細胞中に幹細胞が存在することを見出し、さらにマウス同様この幹細胞のマーカーであるCD157陽性細胞がヒト血管内皮細胞中に存在することを証明した。このことは様々なヒト組織中において血管内皮幹細胞の同定が可能となることから、今後本細胞を単離し、細胞特性を明らかにすることで、将来におけるヒトの心臓、肺、筋肉など様々な組織・臓器の虚血性疾患に対する革新的な治療法の開発に繋がる可能性を持つ。