Normoxia is not favorable for maintaining stemness of human endothelial progenitor cells

Publication date: Available online 14 May 2019Source: Stem Cell ResearchAuthor(s): Yiqiu Lin, Bing Liu, Tongyuan Deng, Jian Zhong, Zhuowei Feng, Qing Zeng, Guozhi Huang, Zhenzhou ChenAbstractThe in vitro expansion of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) is necessary for obtaining sufficient amounts of cells for clinical applications. However, EPC expansion is conventionally carried out under non-physiologic oxygen concentrations (normoxia, ~20% O2). We compared the effects of normoxic and hypoxic culture on the stemness of expanded EPCs. Human EPCs were cultured under hypoxia (1% O2) or normoxia (~20% O2), respectively. Cell proliferation, colony formation, in vitro angiogenesis, and the migration ability of the expanded EPCs were compared. To explore the underlying mechanism, whole transcriptome RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was also performed to select differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were then partially validated by western blotting. EPCs cultured under normoxia showed reduced proliferation, colony formation, in vitro angiogenesis, and migration abilities and a higher proportion of senescent cells compared with those cultured under hypoxia. A total of 48 DEGs were identified by transcriptome RNA-seq. Further bioinformatics analysis revealed that six pathways were enriched, among which the p53 signaling pathway. Finally, we confirmed the differential expression of the p53 pathway by Western blot analysis. Compared with hypoxia, normoxia is not favorable for maintainin...
Source: Stem Cell Research - Category: Stem Cells Source Type: research