Therapeutic angiogenesis is a promising strategy to promote the formation of new or collateral vessels for tissue regeneration
and repair. Since changes in tissue oxygen concentrations are known to stimulate numerous cell functions, these studies have
focused on the oxygen microenvironment and its role on the angiogenic potential of endothelial cells. We analyzed the proangiogenic
potential of human endothelial colony-forming cells (hECFCs), a highly proliferative population of circulating endothelial
progenitor cells, and compared outcomes to human dermal microvascular cells (HMVECs) under oxygen tensions ranging from 1%
to 21% O
2, representative of ischemic or healthy tissues and standard culture conditions. Compared to HMVECs, hECFCs (1) exhibited
significantly greater proliferation in both ischemic conditions and ambient air; (2) demonstrated increased migration compared
to HMVECs when exposed to chemotactic gradients in reduced oxygen; and (3) exhibited comparable or superior proangiogenic
potential in reduced oxygen conditions when assessed using a vessel-forming assay. These data demonstrate that the angiogenic
potential of both endothelial populations is influenced by the local oxygen microenvironment. However, hECFCs exhibit a robust
angiogenic potential in oxygen conditions representative of physiologic, ischemic, or ambient air conditions, and these findings
suggest that hECFCs may be a superior cell source for use in cell-based approaches for the neovascularization of ischemic
or engineered tissues.
Keywords Angiogenesis - Endothelial cells - Endothelial progenitor cells - Neovascularization